New road will bring a new era for a multibillion-dollar future at this Utah mini-city

Draper • In another milestone for its largest public development ever, Utah started work Tuesday on a stretch of road to The Point, where officials say a futuristic mini-city will rise and help all residents prosper.

Gov. Spencer Cox joined scores of state, county and city leaders on the dusty site in Draper, where the state prison once stood for a groundbreaking for Porter Rockwell Boulevard, which will link the first 100-acre phase of the multibillion-dollar, mixed-use development with the Wasatch Front and the rest of the world.

Instead of hoisting golden shovels, state officials and members of The Point of the Mountain State Land Authority donned neon-yellow vests and hard hats and jumped into six huge excavators to gouge up dirt in unison and declare a new era.

“Fun!” Cox shouted as he lingered at the controls of a gigantic Geneva Rock excavator, scraping the ground with its huge claw. “It’s official, I guess.”

Tuesday’s rite also marked the ceremonial launch, leaders said, of what is being called Utah’s innovation community — after almost a decade of debate, brainstorming, hearings and preparation.

As per public input and detailed planning, The Point eventually will bring about a dense enclave over 600 acres, with new offices, shops, homes and green spaces built around a special research-district-turned-economic-engine for the state.

It will be the largest public redevelopment in Utah history, intended as a lift to residents, taxpayers and government budgets for generations.

“It’s unlike anything else happening in the country,” Cox said. “It’s the epicenter of the fastest-growing part of the fastest-growing state in the country.”

The project is anticipated to generate thousands of jobs and contribute billions to the state’s gross domestic product.

‘More than a road’

Tuesday’s fete represented a piece of the nearly $165 million state lawmakers are spending to get the heart of The Point ready for swift development. That funding also paid for major utilities as well, such as electrical, water, sewer and high-speed telecommunications fiber.

“We’re building much more than a road,” said state Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan and the land authority’s co-chair. “We’re building a community.”

Utah hired The Point Partners, a consortium of developers, in November 2023 to execute this first phase with state infrastructure in place and muster private investments worth upward of $2.3 billion in that choice real estate along Interstate 15.

As its nears completion in about a year and a half, the new boulevard will put that initial phase of vertical construction in full motion.

“This is unlike usual developments, where it starts on the edge,” said Michael Ambre, The Point’s executive director since October. “Instead, we are starting at the center, accelerating the success of this project due to the investment of this infrastructure.”

State plans for the central 98.5 acres at The Point call for nearly 2.3 million square feet of high-end office space, as well as hotels, shopping districts, ample open spaces, a network of trails and up to 3,300 housing units, with about 400 of those dwellings to be kept moderately affordable.

A first phase highlight will be construction of a “river to range” retail promenade running along a refreshed segment of the Jordan River. That feature is to be anchored by a regional entertainment venue — with 3,000 seats — for concerts, sports and digital gaming events.

Road to state prosperity?

Utah officials are gearing up for The Point to be centered on the new state-coordinated, research-driven innovation district. The entrepreneurial hub is to be seeded by the state’s colleges and universities and the private sector to generate life-changing ideas in technology, medicine, finance and clean energy.

The Legislature voted in 2015 to relocate the nearly 70-year-old state prison from Draper to Salt Lake City. More than six years later, in summer 2022, the $1 billion-plus, 3,600-bed Utah State Correctional Facility opened five miles west of the Salt Lake City International Airport.

After nearly a year of demolition work, the last remaining guard tower at the old lockup fell in August 2023. Only the historic Chapel by the Wayside, built by inmates and set for preservation, still stands on what was the main penitentiary campus.

Results from that decision to build a new prison and raze the old one to make way for a massive development will, said Teuscher, change lives for generations.

“Our children and our grandchildren will look back on this day to remember The Point as an inflection point for our state,” the lawmaker said, adding that it “will set us on a historic trajectory of progress and prosperity.”

State estimates are that Utahns stand to benefit from “a more than doubling of a return on investment” in The Point, according to a statement Tuesday by the land authority.

Completion in 2026

Porter Rockwell Boulevard is designed for vehicles but includes sidewalks and bike lanes — in keeping with The Point’s emphasis on alternative modes of transportation.

Northern and southern loop roads around the old prison site should be completed by spring, with the ultimate promise of improving traffic mobility throughout the southern Salt Lake Valley. Lawmakers and the state’s transportation officials also plan a new $250 million FrontRunner station to serve the new community, envisioned to be roughly the size of nearby Bluffdale (population 19,000) when it’s fully built.

As the latest roadwork progresses, crews with WW Clyde and Geneva Rock are scheduled to build a bridge over the East Jordan Canal as part of the river-to-range connection sometime next summer and then install The Point’s culinary water system in fall 2025. That is to be followed next winter by landscaping for a series of parks and trails.

Named for Orrin Porter Rockwell — a gunslinger and bodyguard to early Latter-day Saint leaders Joseph Smith and Brigham Young — the boulevard is scheduled to be finished by summer 2026.

On Tuesday, Mountain West Commercial Real Estate in Salt Lake City announced it is leading the recruitment of leasing tenants for The Point’s retail spaces. Salt Lake City-based real estate brokers with Colliers are already seeking tenants to lease its future offices.