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Keith McCord Reporting OK, you've heard this before, but Utah's economy is booming! And, knock on wood, it's going to stay strong for much of this year, at least that's the forecast of experts who should know.
These are the commercial real estate folks, the people who are largely responsible for our changing skyline of the years. And, it's going to keep changing.
During the summer of 1973, Salt Lake's skyline certainly changed. It grew taller as hotels, banks, and other office buildings jumped out of the ground. Some of those buildings are gone now, but they're being replaced with new structures, as the city, and county continue to evolve.
Coldwell Banker, one of the nation's largest commercial franchisers in the nation, says 2006 set records in Salt Lake.
Gary Mangum, Principal Broker, Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT: "We closed 1,460 transactions, which accounted for a total closed volume of 1-billion, 513 million dollars worth of real estate transactions out of our salt lake city office."
Utah's economy is driving all this, with job growth is as number one in the nation.
Peter Corroon: "Utah, also ranked number 1 in the unemployment rate, at 2.5%, so really things are on fire."
On fire, with the outlook still good. Office vacancy rates are the lowest on record, which means, new developments like the City Creek Center, and the new office tower at the Gateway should have no problem filling up.
And Utah is no longer a "live-in-the-suburbs-work-in-the-city" type of place. People want to live downtown now, and new developments are integrating both business and residential, a trend that will no doubt continue.
And there's talk of even more residential living in the downtown area. Developers of the new City Creek Center are talking about building a 32-story residential tower next to the Marriott hotel.
Residential or commercial, Utah's fiery economy is also attracting national attention.
Brandon Fugal, Commercial Associate, Coldwell Banker: "A lot of national users are looking at Utah more than ever...and we expect this year major announcements from national tenants that will be locating here and recognizing Utah as the crossroads of the west."
Another note about job growth, in Salt Lake County alone last year there were 24,000 new jobs created! Things are booming here. The question is: for how long? We made be riding this wave for a while yet...
