435 Podcast: Southern Utah
Explore the heartbeat of Southern Utah with the 435 Podcast, your go-to source for all things local in Washington County. Stay ahead of the curve with our in-depth coverage, expert analysis, and captivating interviews. Whether you're a resident or visitor, our podcast is your key to unlocking the latest happenings and trends in St. George and the surrounding areas. Tune in now to stay informed and connected with our thriving community!
435 Podcast: Southern Utah
Washington City: Pioneer Grit Meets Modern Development
The transformation of Washington City from farming fields to a strategically developed urban center is unfolding before our eyes. Economic Development Director Rusty Hughes reveals the careful balancing act required to maintain the city's unique character while addressing the economic realities of growth.
When we think about local development, we rarely consider the financial mechanics behind municipal decisions. For every residential property built in Washington City, local government spends $1.30-$1.60 in services for each dollar collected in revenue. This simple fact explains why Washington City, after two decades of being 98% residential permits, is now actively pursuing high-value commercial development along the I-15 corridor.
Rusty shares fascinating insights about projects reshaping the landscape: ARA Southwest Logistics, the largest industrial development in Washington County history; WinCo's long-awaited arrival at Exit 11 after eight years of searching for the perfect location; and plans for a walkable downtown core that will give Washington City its own unique gathering place. Each project is strategically positioned to generate revenue, create jobs, and reduce the number of residents who must commute elsewhere for work and shopping.
Perhaps most compelling is Hughes' perspective as both an economic developer and a 20-year resident who raised her children in Washington City. Her journey from military service to economic development illustrates the diverse backgrounds bringing expertise to municipal government. She emphasizes how community engagement shapes development decisions, inviting residents to follow projects on the city's interactive map at WashingtonCity.org/ed.
Guest: Rusty Hughes, Economic Development Director for Washington City, Utah
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rusty-hughes-8544696b/?trk=public_post_comment_actor-image
Washington City Economic Developments: https://washingtoncity.org/development/economicdevelopment
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[00:00:00] Intro.
[00:01:28] Economic Challenges for Washington City.
[00:06:15] Rusty's Background in Economic Development.
[00:17:36] Washington City vs. St. George Development.
[00:26:59] Residential Growth and Service Population Challenges.
[00:35:56] Industrial Development and Aura Southwest Logistics.
[00:48:35] Winco and New Retail Development.
[00:54:39] Auto Mall and Downtown Revitalization Plans.
[01:03:17] Community Engagement and Online Resources
you know, their property taxes would inevitably have to go up or the service goes down which means services in police, fire, roads, all of the, all of the um sewer, um parks, trails, all of the things that people love. The area for those services go down.
Speaker 2:From the blue form media studios. This is the 435 Podcast, the pulse of Southern Utah. Hey everybody, welcome back to the 435 Podcast. Today we have Rusty Hughes. She's the Economic Development Director for Washington City. Just a couple of weeks ago we had the St George City Economic Development Director on and Rusty looks at it from a completely different lens. We talk all development in washington city traffic on green springs. We know y'all hate that. Enjoy this episode, guys. What you learn, hope you learn something.
Speaker 2:Shout out to our uh sponsors, our, our, our partners tech ridge, uh to a con amphitheater. A real estate 435 fs coffee company. You guys are awesome. Thanks for the support and, uh, share this with your neighbor or your friend that lives in Washington City because they're probably going to want to hear it. See you out there, guys. You know this might sound crazy, but I hate real estate agents and after being with myself for the last 10 years, I know the good ones from the bad ones. If you're thinking about buying, selling or investing in real estate here in Southern Utah, we want you to interview us for the job. Go to realestate435.com and give us a call. We promise you're going to love us. Getting the topics isn't necessarily the challenge. It's like the who, like who's the best person to talk about this thing, because sometimes the politician is not the person. It's like economic development. Right? You're the economic development director for Washington City, is that correct?
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:That's the title, Chad Thomas. He made sure it was Economic Development.
Speaker 1:It's more development than economic.
Speaker 2:Right, and so you've been in that position since 2021?
Speaker 1:With Washington City.
Speaker 2:With.
Speaker 1:Washington City, so I was previously at an EDO, which you know what that means now.
Speaker 2:Economic Development Organization. Oh yeah, that's right, edo.
Speaker 1:That's right. Edo, that's right. Yeah, so I was with a public private or a public private partnership, a PPP, a 3P, for you know it went through a lot of transition, but we had a director that started it for Washington County about 27 years ago maybe more than that now and he was at the helm of that for about 25 years so he built out, worked with.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean when I say he, when you work in economic development, you never work alone. You, there are so many partnerships and so many. You're kind of a jack-of-all-trades and so you have to really know the people and know who to contact and know where to get good data and and, but you, you never. No project is. I think you should be suspicious of anyone that says I got this.
Speaker 2:I brought this in because it's never one person. So, but yeah, this doing the job for 25 years, though, is like is one of those things like wow, it seems like we don't have that at very much anymore.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, and he, he kind of he actually the state um interacted with him a lot on how they put together economic development for the state. And then there were another. We've been in another period of transition. So what he did worked really well for the for just to get industry and to to diversify the local economy, meaning Washington County. At the time where he did it, he was instrumental in bringing together the Fort Pierce Industrial Park, which is where most of that manufacturing came in and has come in. But there are a few other industrial parks in the area there's Gateway Industrial in Hurricane, there's one out by the Sunrise Valley in Washington and then there's the largest industrial project in Washington County's history which is wholly in Washington City.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Nice plug. So Aura right Aura.
Speaker 1:Aura Southwest Logistics.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's going to be really huge for Southern Utah I think, a lot bigger than people really kind of realize.
Speaker 1:I think people start to get an idea of it when those walls start going up. I mean, I get video from the developer usually every once a month or so just on the progress, and it's really a massive undertaking what they're doing out there. I didn't think that that land would go for another 10, 15 years and it really takes the largest industrial investor in the state of Utah to pull. I don't think there are a lot of people that could pull off what Freeport West is doing with Aura.
Speaker 2:So there they. Yeah, it seemed like for a long time it was like this Somewhere in the future that we can't really foresee. This is a possibility out here, right.
Speaker 1:It seemed like, and then it went from that. It went from that to.
Speaker 2:oh yeah, it's going to open in a year and a half, like oh crap.
Speaker 1:They had a really aggressive build out schedule and we need it because the if you look at I mean I always look at the data to our availability for industrial warehouse has been less than 1% for several quarters, and before that it was in the two, three.
Speaker 2:And that's in Washington City or in the county. That's the county and you look at it.
Speaker 1:You look at these things on a regional level, right. And then Washington City wasn't even really in the game until Sunrise Valley came in, which is a little bit smaller scale industrial park, but they have quite a bit of room to grow and then with this R Southwest logistics, they're really pioneering that area just east of the airport.
Speaker 2:So back I'm going to tap the bow with the who, just because we started, we just rolled right into it, and then I got right to business.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, so did I, because I want to give a little bit of your past, because I don't want the listeners to be like, oh, this is boring, like, and then on to the next one, because I want them to know who you are and why. We're talking. Right, we're talking about Washington City. We had the St George City thomas on a couple weeks ago. Yep, he teed it up, he did great, he teed it up and I and really, as we go into another election season, everybody don't be disappointed. We have more politics for you.
Speaker 1:Uh is that what everybody's on here for? I don't know they're gonna be so disappointed. Don't get into the politics, but that's.
Speaker 2:I was more talking to the communities like, oh my gosh, another election. Do we ever stop with this? You know what I mean, because we had such an intense one, but we had. This last one was was for saint george. Well, the, the presidential election was burdensome on everybody, I think, and so I think the politics, whether it's federal or like local, they just blend it all together, I think I think so too yeah.
Speaker 2:And then the local stuff. They're so burnt out by the presidential election that by the time that next one comes around, they they're like yeah, yeah, sure. If it's the guy that I know, I'm happy enough. It's. Let's not, let's not rattle the party or the party.
Speaker 2:city elections don't have parties. But to your point, like it's what's the path of least resistance excuse my cough, uh, the what's path of least resistance? And and so what I wanted to do is tee up before we have interviews for the mayors and the city council members is to understand, okay, who are the people on the ground doing the work Year in and year out. There's the elected officials that drive policymaking, but the people that are actually doing the work are individuals like you and Chad, and the administrative staff that help execute what these budgets entail. And then you know the, the water department, and the, the roads departments, like what does it really take to put these all things, all these things together, and how important is it, you know, to the community?
Speaker 1:Well, and I'm and I'm probably not the expert on it because I'm fairly new to municipal government Um, I, my, I've I've been in economic development for about a decade and I've I previously worked for the public private organization and I work mostly with developers and with end users and in the industrial manufacturing space. So I recently so this is new to me too, and I had a completely different perspective of it. Being outside of it and never having attended a city council meeting. Shame on me. I think everybody should, or at least watch them. I mean, that's how you engage in local government and it really does make a difference. And just the way that our government is structured. That leadership is important, and so engaging in those local elections, I think is very important in getting to know your candidates, because they're they're making decisions about where you live and they that affects you more than some of these things that are happening on a federal level.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one of the things, too, I was talking to chat about just to that point is that there's the. There's the system that we have to operate in at the local level. It's like, well, we have to do it this way. I wish we could change that sales tax wasn't the primary generator of revenue. I wish that wasn't the incentive, but that is the only incentive and it's the only way that we can provide these other things.
Speaker 2:And so I know you don't want us to put a hotel, another hotel, on Greensprings exit, but at the same time, we need it for a different reason. Right, we need. We need that for a reason that can't just be about traffic, right, and it doesn't impact your lives. But in order for us to keep our roads and keep our police and keep the fire and keep the parks and make sure that property taxes stay low, we got to have some development. Right, and and and. Designing where that development goes is very difficult because there's zoning and then there's the. You're bringing, basically, businesses to the table. Maybe is that the best way to describe what your job is.
Speaker 1:Kind of. Mine's a little bit different. Washington City is mostly a bedroom community.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:However, and we've traditionally been farming right, so the fields Washington City is known for the Washington fields, which are now mostly homes.
Speaker 2:We had farmer Sherry Sherry Staley on the podcast. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And her family's been in Washington City for generations.
Speaker 2:Exactly, she's fifth generation. It's crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So when you say are you a local or how long have you? I've lived in Washington, well, I've lived in Southern Utah for 25 years.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I've been in Washington City for, let's see, I moved there in 2005. But that's where I've raised my children.
Speaker 2:Yeah so.
Speaker 1:I've been in Washington City for 20 years now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so you've watched the development of the fields.
Speaker 1:I have. Well, I've always lived kind of downtown around the main core. So yeah, the fields. My kids were raised at Staley Farms, going to Sherry's place, and you know we've got a lot of great pictures and a lot of great memories of that area. But I can't believe. Even just driving to the airport or just driving around town, I mean, a lot of what I do is look at things on maps, but when you're out there on the ground it looks different and you don't realize just how much development is going on.
Speaker 1:But you see it in the permit numbers and the population increase and the new faces and all the cars on the road. But we've always lived in a unique area in that we have so many visitors that come to the area. So I think I think Chad touched on that it's not. It's you know the residents that live here when you're new here. Sometimes a lot of people came here because they ran the marathon or they like when we had the Kona Ironman that moved here, world Senior Games.
Speaker 2:I've helped so many clients as a real estate agent. I've helped so many clients that are like, well, we were coming here and competing in the pistol shooting competition or whatever it might be, and we did that for 15 years and we just decided, you know, this is where we want to be Right. And that happened probably half dozen, two dozen, not half dozen, two dozen, it was about two dozen clients that are just from the World Senior Games, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's interesting because a lot of people see, you know, they obviously see something different than what I saw 20 years ago when I moved here because, it's changed so much.
Speaker 1:But it is interesting, I find, that the people that have lived there the longest have had to welcome, not had to. They've welcomed people and they've been really good about it, and they've welcomed people into the community for a longer period of time. So they're used to that change, even though they still have nostalgia of how it used to be and it will. But they understand it will never be that way again. Um, so it will change, and so I think that that's why you see a lot of engagement from people, because they, they, they realize it's going to change and we can either, um, kick and scream and push against that, but change is inevitable or we can be a part of it and we can be a part of shaping that.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And so that's kind of what really interested me about working in the city that I raised my children in and that I've lived in for 20 years, and really I grew up and I feel like I grew up in myself.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I, you know Chad. Chad mentioned you know he was.
Speaker 1:He was talking about the, how many, the, the dollar value of the deals he's done and things like that, which is economic development, speak for you know, I know what I'm doing and I've I've closed some deals and I can. You know, you can trust me. But there's also that other side of it. I think that you often see, maybe the public doesn't always see with municipal employees and I have this perception. I have to admit, before I went to the city, a lot of complaints, you know, a lot of frustrations, a lot of annoying things, but what I found is the people that work at cities are the best people in the world, and some of them are bureaucrats and they're tough too. So there's a little bit of both. But I think people really have a passion for moving the needle and that's what I wanted to do and that's kind of what excited me about economic development. So when I was a little girl I didn't say I think I'll be an economic developer when I grow up.
Speaker 2:You didn't, I didn't. Oh man, I'm so surprised. I actually wanted'll be an economic developer when I grow up.
Speaker 1:You didn't, I didn't. Oh man, I'm so surprised. I actually wanted to be an actress, so this is the closest I've ever come to it, and I have no skills to be an actress, so that's so funny, it's funny. I can't sing or dance or act.
Speaker 2:But you have so many others, all these other like really sharp things right. You like to learn and the artistic side is something that you've kind of developed over time. It's not something natural. Is that what you were kind of describing?
Speaker 1:I've learned to appreciate it.
Speaker 2:I don't think.
Speaker 1:I have an aptitude for creativity, which makes me a great bureaucrat. No, I'm just kidding. No, there is a space for creative people and we get creative people and we get entrepreneurs that come into the city and a lot of times they get really frustrated. But I think that in understanding the entrepreneur mindset because I did do that too I was very risk adverse, so it was very careful entrepreneur. But I've owned a business in San Diego. I had a cleaning and security guard business. I know it's a little strange. I was in the military, I was in the military, I was in a military police unit and then it changed.
Speaker 1:And then it, it, it lent well to get the licensing required to do yeah.
Speaker 2:Opportunities show up and you just take, take the opportunities.
Speaker 1:You know I was just doing whatever I've. I uh, when I graduated from high school, I joined the military a month after I graduated, and then I, but prior to that I had never left the state of Utah, I had never stayed in a hotel, I had never been on an airplane I grew up in West Valley and my dad was a prepper and we went hunting and so I could shoot and I could feel, I can feel dress an animal and I have other skills right.
Speaker 1:I can do. I can. I can rough it for a while. Yeah, but I really wanted that. I remember getting on the airplane and flying to South Carolina and just seeing all those trees, thinking if I get lost there, nobody's ever going to find me, and then being able to smell the walls when I got off the airplane.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, but but really that I think it's important to travel, and I did. I've traveled a lot and that's part of why this feels like home to me. I've lived in a lot of different places. I've lived in Hong Kong, I've lived in Germany, I've lived in the South, I've lived in California, but Utah has always been home for me, and then Southern Utah became my home, and so while there has been a lot of growth and there and there are some challenges that come with that, there's also some amazing opportunities, especially when people engage. So I do appreciate what you're doing with really putting some attention on local politics because, it does matter.
Speaker 1:And and then also I I also appreciate your interview with Chad. I think he's been great for our market and we work really closely together and I love his attitude of an abundant mindset. We haven't always had that in this area, but I think increasingly we are, and we're just so much stronger together and we have the ability to shape this community. Keep the great things about the community, but then also take advantage of the opportunities that are coming as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think the Dixie spirit, somebody coming from outside the area and like understanding, that is like we have to work together and we have to grow and new ideas are important in that mix, as we kind of grow in.
Speaker 1:And it doesn't always come easy. Here I've lived in a lot of different cities. It doesn't always come, and I've always I I'm analytical, so I've always, I've always thought well, why is that? And I think it has something to do with the history of the people that lived in this area and that pioneer grit. So there's two sides of that. You're geographically isolated and it was not a very hospitable environment when it was the least hospitable environment imaginable. Right, right, and so the people that settled this area were tough and they put up with so much.
Speaker 1:And then we got air conditioning in the 70s and then we had a freeway, yeah. No, but but part of that pioneer, it's kind of that do it yourself attitude and that we can't really rely on other people. Yeah, so I see that, I see that pop up in little places here and there. But I also see, and I think there's something kind of exciting about that and kind of Wild West about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But I also see the connection to northern Utah. I know we say it up north up north and down south up north.
Speaker 1:I have all the local lingo down now after being here for 20 years. But yeah, I see stronger connections because there are so many people that have that this has been their playground but it's also where they want to have a second home or where they want to retire or where they just they come down for sporting events. You know, there there are so many great things about this area that it wasn't going to stay small forever.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But, but I do appreciate the folks that were here when it was, you know, 10, 20,000 people on the road to somewhere else.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:And actually that's how I found it.
Speaker 2:It's like Radiator Springs from the movie Cars.
Speaker 1:So I grew up in northern Utah, I ended up in San Diego with a business and this was about the halfway point, was about six hours, and I would stop here and I would think, man, this is a beautiful place to raise children. It just looks so like such a great.
Speaker 2:It's like small enough. Large enough, but not too small. That's exactly why we moved here in 2015.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there you go, Me and my wife was like it's a great place to raise a family.
Speaker 2:We came from California, didn't want to live in that kind of environment and, yeah, that was exactly why we moved here. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I was from Northern Utah, but then I got used to that san diego weather and I just thought I can't go back up and I don't like the cold my wife was born and raised in orange county and she's like I want to live in the snow.
Speaker 2:I was like no, you don't. I promise I live in the snow. It's not that it's great for a couple days and then you're sick of it and the it snows only pretty like right after it snows and then it's gross. Yeah, and so anyway, but yeah, yeah, once you take your car out a few times.
Speaker 1:Southern Utah or.
Speaker 2:Southern California ruins a lot of things, and one of it is weather anywhere else in the country. Right, you're like oh man, kind of spoils, yeah, it spoils, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I've been, I've been paying, I think, I've just just, I think you know, you pick it up from the people that have lived here longer and it is. You know. It's that, figure it out. Nobody's coming to rescue. You're going to figure it out. I mean it's not the case anymore, but it was for so long that it's kind of ingrained in the culture here, and I like that, I like that.
Speaker 1:Um, you know, pull yourself up by your bootstraps and figure it out, and I and I, and it actually is, is part of the story of Southern Utah, so, um so it's why businesses are drawn to the area.
Speaker 2:That's a good point, it's a good transition to is is thinking about, okay, drawing businesses there. How do you see it differently than St George does? Right Cause, uh, washington city I'm saying this, not anybody else, it's like the little brother. Or it's like it's like the other sibling in the county is like yeah, yeah, you're, you're going to get there one day. But they were, they settled, they had the cotton cotton mill, they, they, the. They just developed differently. How do you view it today Differently, st George's way of economic development, in the way you're approaching it?
Speaker 1:Well, st George is a lot further ahead, so that was town, right.
Speaker 1:And so everybody would go to town, and that's where commerce was. Ironically, the very first business that's still standing in the cotton mill that is the Star Nursery off of Telegraph in Washington City, right, it's so awesome, but you know, it's also an agricultural cotton manufacturing that came from growing cotton in the area, right? So that's, the settlers that came to this area had grown cotton in the southern United States and that's why they were sent here. But it's interesting that that was the first business, but then all the businesses. In fact, I think the last time it was probably 20, 21, 2022 that we did an analysis where about 85 percent of all commercial development in the county is in within Washington, I'm sorry, within St George.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 1:So, however, st George and Washington City make up the St George MSA. So I mean, I play this game sometimes when I go do presentations called is it in Washington or St George? Because there are so many businesses that are called the St George this or the St George that, which is fine. You know the area. I still tell my family I live in St George and I haven't lived in St George for 20 years. I've lived in Washington city. It gets a little, you know those municipal boundaries do matter.
Speaker 1:They do matter when it comes to taxes when it comes to property taxes, things like that. But we're all you know. We're a big community. But I've also noticed when I drive over to St Georgia it has a very different feel. So I think each community has a unique character and it's part of the history and it's part of how they've grown. So, Washington City for the last two decades by permit number has been 98% residential. So we're great at building houses in Washington City. You're the best, but we're great at building houses in Washington.
Speaker 2:City, you're the best.
Speaker 1:But we're also along that I-15 corridor and we have great developable land that we're now getting to the tipping point because part of the traffic problems in Southern Utah is that Washington City leaves Washington City.
Speaker 1:The residents leave almost every day and go into town and that was fine when it was a small farming community, but it's a lot now that we've grown so much and there's so many new residents. Um, you know population numbers. There are a lot of different uh sources for population numbers. But what we look at in Washington city, and especially being a tourist area, um, look at it a little bit differently. In this area, in general, you have residents and you're part-time residents, right, Snowbirds, but then you also have vacation rentals because we're such a tourist area. So we look at our service area or our service population, which is about 40,000 for Washington City.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:That will be different from our actual full-time residents or people that are here long enough to be considered residents. Right, but they may live a few months out of the year, like maybe the hot summer months. They go up to somewhere Somewhere.
Speaker 2:Wyoming Somewhere snowy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly so. But we look at that service population because that is what the city has to service with the tax revenues that they bring in. And so um, regardless of whether it's real quick.
Speaker 2:what's the population? What's the primary resident population? Do you look at that at all? I can't even remember.
Speaker 1:We do. I want to say it's I'm gonna have to look at, that's going to look great. Um I, our population grows so quickly. We're around 34, 35. I want to say um, and I always calculate. I always calculate the 2.7 for every home permit.
Speaker 1:So a single family, so there's another because those figures lag behind a little bit. But the state will put out um population figures based on the census data. And then that last census was a little bit but the state will put out um population figures based on the census data. And then that last census was a little weird because it was during covid, but um, the estimate is 35 yeah, you were super close 35 ish, um, but that's probably at the end of 2024 right yeah, that was 24 yeah, yeah, so we've.
Speaker 1:We've had some permits since then a few permits.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, a few huge homes, but some like insane like hotel size homes.
Speaker 1:Stop doing the parade of homes. I I mean it's great, it brings lots of people to the area, but I don't know if I could talk about it right now I'm still too fresh.
Speaker 2:It's I I, because I love suba and I love what they do and I know they're such a huge, valuable they're like. I think economically residential construction accounts for like almost 30% of our economy, of our economy, not just residential, just construction in general. I think the last time I looked was around 30% of the economy and Supa has a big, big, big part of that and the parade of homes is really cool in all of the ways and it's starting to get kind of gross there there are a lot of big homes where there's a, but there is also a big effort from a lot of different places um to look at affordable housing yeah and or housing affordability, or I mean I I think they should call it attainability.
Speaker 2:Now is the yeah, yeah, we the euphemism changing around what it means and what a big, a little, a all that stuff.
Speaker 1:Can I buy a house here? Can my kids move out of my house? That's just what I want to know.
Speaker 2:Affordable, affordable, attainable, it doesn't matter. Can I actually buy a house? And then there's the rent portion, right, this is a totally separate conversation.
Speaker 1:It's economic factors that are different, but buying a house has a lot of factors that we can't control Right, and actually I'm going to have to give you a recommendation for and I'm going to have to send it later because I don't remember the guy's name, but he's from Zion Public Finance and so they're a municipal advisor.
Speaker 1:They advise the city of Washington and other cities throughout Utah, but they did a presentation recently on they had this this time. Well it's they had this, this measurement of what affects the as far as politically, on the federal level, the state level or the local, municipal level who can address the affordable housing issue? Because it's not just happening in southern Utah. There are lots of places across the nation where there's a housing shortage.
Speaker 2:So are you saying that this analysis is saying this individual entity, like local municipals, can do these things?
Speaker 1:They can do certain things through policy, but the things that are done at a local level take the longest to address the issue. The things that happen at the federal level are the have the fastest impact, and so they anyway, he'll do a much better job of breaking that down, but especially.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I think you know folks don't always know that. They just know that there's a problem. I know we have a local, a lot of local business owners who are struggling. You know the city's struggling to get employees. Labor is an issue and it's not an issue. You know you want skilled labor and I think there's a lot of initiatives and training and everything, but you also have to be able to buy a home here and live here Afford it.
Speaker 1:Right or rent. You know you have to be able to afford. So you know we can draw from other communities that are a little less expensive to live in because, depending on what that wage is and there's a, you know the Department of Workforce Services will have the dollar amount of how much per hour or what the salary is for how far people are willing to drive, so they'll drive 30 minutes for this amount or they'll drive 15 minutes for this amount.
Speaker 1:So we can draw from other areas where housing is a little bit more affordable, but only to a certain point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because we're in the middle of nowhere.
Speaker 1:Right, we're not going to have people driving from Vegas and Cedar's too far.
Speaker 2:If you look at that, if that analysis, I bet you Cedar 40 minutes is probably too far minutes there are people that make a daily commute they do from you, know, I, I mean it's much more difficult, since I looked at, it was about 15 000 people a day. Wow I was way bigger of a number than yeah that that that make that commute that's crazy I mean maybe that's.
Speaker 1:I don't know if that's a day I'm gonna have to check my numbers that's all right.
Speaker 2:Somebody else fact check us. We're giving our best. We're giving our best shot here.
Speaker 1:I'm a jack of all trades, don't give yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, master of none.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'll have those numbers for a business. If they want to know, I'll pull the most recent data. We're going to get the data Right.
Speaker 2:So maybe let's go back to the differences between St George and Washington city, cause we, we weaved around, I did the weave, we weaved around, I did the weave. Um, that just the differences, and then I really want, while we have a little bit enough time, I want to talk about what's coming up in washington city too, so just just take me back. Uh, 98 residential community right, and so your focus is definitely we need revenue into the city because a residential property is a net uh cost to the government.
Speaker 1:Right, the house doesn't make the city government really any money right, it's, it's, it's a cost, so, and the property taxes don't cover for that right like no, they don't they don't, and sales tax doesn't always cover for every dollar of revenue that you bring in.
Speaker 1:Property taxes for um, for residential it costs about it ranges a dollar, but up to a dollar 60, so a dollar 30 to a dollar 60, whereas like um commercial, for every dollar of revenue that comes in it's 33 cents too, and that varies a little bit too, but but in general though that's a concept you get a capture, yeah residential doesn't pay for itself.
Speaker 1:Now, um, changing up that residential changes those figures a little bit and depending on what type of commercial really makes a difference too. If there's a high capital investment in, that means that the value of the, of the development, whatever it is a commercial development is is higher. So we're looking. So washington city has a strategy of looking for high value because we have a limited commercial area. So we want high value, high dollar investment and we want, of course, sales tax generation.
Speaker 1:And part of the sales tax generation is not just to offset the tax burden on residents that you know their property taxes would inevitably have to go up or the service goes down which means services in police, fire, roads, all of the sewer, parks, trails, all of the things that people love the area for those services go down and we're kind of at that point where the city's struggling.
Speaker 2:Quick water drink.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the good news is we do have some great projects coming in that, I think, will really not only help that ratio a little, bring more revenues in so that we can maintain the service level to the community, which I think is great. We have great parks, we have great trails. We have great employees that put a lot of effort into those. Yeah, the ball fields the Sullivan think is great. We have great parks, we have great trails.
Speaker 1:We have great employees that put a lot of effort into those, yeah, the ball fields, the Sullivan soccer parks, we have, you know, we have some really great areas.
Speaker 2:That's such a cool park. I love that park. Yeah, runs along the river.
Speaker 1:But also, you know, infrastructure and and the way we build that goes up for the government side too. But the other thing is jobs, services and products closer to where Washington City residents live about. Is everybody going into town? It becomes not. Yeah, it becomes not, you know, and there's certain roads where usually those commercial corridors because they're going to work too, they're going to school, they're going to and people tend to buy things closer to where they work rather than where their home, where they live.
Speaker 1:Now that's in general our demographics a little bit different, but um, but in general that's.
Speaker 2:I think that definitely the case here, Um, but in general, that's I think that's definitely the case here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and, and people want convenience, um, not everybody wants a commercial development in their backyard but that's why we plan carefully where it makes sense. It makes sense that, you know, along I-15 corridor. But Washington city has been slow because St George has been very aggressive and they've had an aggressive plan and they've done a great job and they put their density and they put their commercial right along the municipal border. They've also had a history of annexing in land because the politics of you know, in our past in Washington City have been, you know, we're not interested, we're not interested, and so they allowed annexations for people that wanted to develop land, no-transcript, the infrastructure out, um, to get that going yeah, and so those are the things.
Speaker 2:Where's that city if?
Speaker 1:you just follow telegraph all the way in um onto sr sr9 and then, uh, it's where lighthouse foods the boulevard okay, that part, the gateway, okay, yeah, there's a oracle. Oracle, that was one of the projects that I worked on when I yeah, they're huge I couldn't believe all the stuff they sell.
Speaker 2:They sell everything. I mean, if it's, if it's a tool, they distribute it. They got, they got a big warehouse there.
Speaker 1:They could do a lot of stuff there are so many businesses that people just have no idea that are here. I mean we, we have, um, I mean I I could talk for hours about this, but um, I mean we, we have a business that is one of two in the world who um make geranium. Who grow their own geranium wafers um or crystals, and they do uh uh geranium. Who grow their own geranium wafers um or crystals, and they do uh uh.
Speaker 1:Geranium is a, is a is an alternative to silicone okay and they use them on satellites and they use them in aerospace, and so there there's a company in belgium, there's a company in saint george that does that wow it's called 5mctor and they might have changed their name, but they're over there, we got to write that one down.
Speaker 2:Uh oh, I could give you, I could give you a list of so many amazing stories about that one down.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll send you a list. There's so many amazing businesses If that's what you're interested in.
Speaker 2:I think, I think the listeners are, I think the people in the, in the community should know about these, right? So figuring out ways to tell people, because I think there's some pride in that, I think, and then you want to feel confident that there's a growth, in a way that seems that there's a long future. Right, because I think a lot of people worry about jobs and I hear a lot. We just don't have enough high paying jobs in Washington County. And so to your point, high value has high value to the city, but also high value to the community, right? Right, and unique businesses like this, I think, do bring value to the community. They're just sometimes not high employment numbers, they're not the biggest employer in the county, but the mix is good.
Speaker 1:I think sometimes you're surprised at who the highest employers are as well.
Speaker 2:I did the analysis. It's all cities and cities and and ihc and, uh yeah, city governments paparazzi's up there for a number of employees. They're. They're up there but, like the top 10, only three of them. Last time I checked, only three of them were not government like directly related yeah, well like skywest was one.
Speaker 1:what that wasn't we have federal employees here yeah.
Speaker 2:So then, a board of education, like the employers being these big organizations IHC board of education, and then the city, government University, dixie, yep exactly. But either way to your point, there are some larger employers here.
Speaker 1:There are, and I would say more so than other areas within, say, the five-county area were very diversified, which has helped the Washington County weather some ups and downs, and that diversification when you have an industry like the building industry in the 2008 crash, and that really affected us right, it affected us less so than say, you know a smaller area that has one big industry like a mining industry or something like that that gets shut down and then you know that town could die altogether.
Speaker 1:I mean it really has a big effect and I think we've weathered some of those. I think we've weathered some of those. But I think that also that focus from a long time ago, I mean there has been a real effort to carve this place out of the desert and to really, you know, to stay here that pioneer grit, and so part of that is just being smart about what you're bringing to the area and balancing everything. And I think there are some times where it gets a little out of a little off kilter. I mean, we're known for tourism, because that's what you can see. But I think some of these other businesses that are in the area that don't necessarily do a lot of marketing because they are sending their product out and they've got their head down doing what they do, I think those are some of the unsung heroes that help balance some of that.
Speaker 1:Because our great weather and this beautiful scenery is going to bring tourism and so you're going to have tourism. But that also helps offset, um, you know the the residential costs, because you have so many outside dollars coming into the community for that. But then the you know the jobs are not as high, high as paying retail and tourism don't always pay as much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, it's a tough thing to try and push right, but uh, as an economic developer, that's, that's kind of the a big, maybe not a burden, but it's part of the, the job it's like. Hey, I want to try to bring businesses in that are going to pay higher wages, but sometimes we don't get those right so we take what we can get.
Speaker 2:So Tell me how did, how did our uh, I mean what was going through like incentives and things like that, because I think the Southwest Logistics Center is the the biggest kind of explosion that Washington City seen in development in a while, outside of housing.
Speaker 1:It was an interesting project. So I actually arrived at Washington City right when that developer was coming in looking at um at land just east of the airport that happens to be in the on the Washington city side, um, and. But in my previous position a couple of things happened. One is, um, it went through a series. I was the assistant director but we went through a series of different directors at that um, that county it's, it wasn't. It wasn't. We weren't in county employees, but we were.
Speaker 1:We had contributions from the cities, from the County, from private businesses. We're about um 70% privately funded actually, um and uh. So so we in that we were focused mostly primarily on manufacturing industrial, and so all the projects fell within that. So, like the Family Dollar was one, lighthouse Foods expansion Intergalactic was a little bit different. I worked on that a little bit. You know, just like I said, there are a lot of hands that go into bringing this in and a lot of people that are involved in bringing these in. But so those are some of the types of projects were the ones that you would see in the industrial parks that we worked on primarily with that. So I'm sorry, that's okay.
Speaker 2:So we're talking about Aura and how. How was it attractive in Washington city, like, maybe give me the story back. So we were.
Speaker 1:So we went through a series of different directors and we had a director came in that had that didn't really do economic development before but had a lot of experience that lends well to it. And there are a lot of different finance land development, commercial real estate, a lot of those things lend really well to being a good economic development director. So this person came in and we basically said, well, let's just go see what the rest of the state is doing. And so we met with economic developers from across the state and one of the economic developers that we met with was in Northern Utah and they brought this project out, which was a Freeport West investment in West Valley area in Northern Utah, and they said this this was just so. So basically we, we, we had the opportunity, this unique opportunity to have that project pre-vetted, saying, and they, they brought it up, we didn't ask they brought it up and they just that that project stood out.
Speaker 1:As you know, great developer, they do what they say they're going to do. They've you know, they're really, they're well-funded, they're you know it's a small team and they, they deliver and it has changed. It's been a huge boon for the city and so fast forward. I come to Washington city and I hear that name again Freeport West. Another thing happened. I got a call out of nowhere from the state treasurer of Louisiana asking if I'd pick him up from the St George airport. And as an economic developer, you just get calls like this and I said sure.
Speaker 2:I hope you Google this guy or gal, first.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I mean we check some things, but I go out to the airport and pick this guy up.
Speaker 2:That's funny.
Speaker 1:He was great and mostly what he didn't like is that we have a lot of chain restaurants and gosh from Louisiana.
Speaker 2:You know it's a little bit different, so I hear that a lot.
Speaker 1:Where's your mom and pop places?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Well, there are a few anyway it's called the houses, cause people make their own food here and they invite all their neighbors and friends over and that's where they eat. Yeah, yeah, that's true, it's a family thing. There's a reason why, yeah, anyway.
Speaker 1:So he was in a conference in Salt Lake and had just popped down for the day and he wanted to talk to the economic development folks because they had he was managing an investment into a firefighters trust for the state of Louisiana that had invested in land right before the 2008 crash. So they bought at the top of the market.
Speaker 2:Oh no.
Speaker 1:Land out west that they had no idea what it was, and so we looked at it and we said, oh yeah, these prices it's going to take a while. Anyway, fast forward. This developer comes to town. Our city was able to respond quickly because they had a great reputation and because they were asking Tanexin to St George and we were kind of done with that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yep.
Speaker 1:And then also they ended up. We connected them with this landowner who was looking to divest and so they struck a deal and so they actually came in with a smaller area and then they bought an even larger area. So that's a significant investment and they've got about 400 acres. Some of it's in St George, most of it's in Washington City. It initially started out with Washington City, but they picked up those additional land pieces which were not contiguous.
Speaker 2:Let me get back to the Louisiana guy. He comes here because he was managing.
Speaker 1:He was looking for what specifically he comes here because he was looking for what specifically? So he was managing land that was held in a trust that went to a firefighter's pension Land here.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:That was part of a pension.
Speaker 2:That makes sense. And so that land wasn't by the airport. Is that the land it is?
Speaker 1:It was by the airport, so there were some pieces and they were close to what Freeport West had already picked up. And so that's one of those things where you just keep your ear to the ground and you remember these people that come in and the timing.
Speaker 2:it's just like folding the cards all down at the same time.
Speaker 1:It came in. We were able to connect them and then they make the deal and they ended up acquiring those pieces so that helped out the Firefighters Trust in Louisiana.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So that's where I talk about. You move the needle and you get you know, it makes a difference in people's lives.
Speaker 2:The butterfly effect right. Yeah, it's going to resonate when you make those through the holes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you never know, you never know. These people pop up from all so unique backgrounds and they, you know, they, add to the community and they, yeah, and different talents, and they, you know, they that all comes together to make community.
Speaker 2:So so was it. Was it land that drew ara? Well, maybe what? What was the um, you know? In looking at other places across countries like, uh, proximity to i-15 or vegas, you know what was it? Hey, this is a good place to do this thing, and I'm still not quite sure exactly what they do.
Speaker 1:Well, without well, I'll let you know.
Speaker 2:And without speaking, I know it's almost. It's almost six. That's quick, it goes fast.
Speaker 1:Well, so, without speaking for them, I'll say this we are geographically located in a great space in Utah for logistics, particularly Southern Utah, so we have rail that's close by. We have, and they've, you know, in Cedar City Chad talked about this a little bit. In Cedar City they have a transloading facility now and they have an underutilized rail from Union Pacific that has a lot going out but not a lot coming in, and so the state's trying to get efficient, put efficiencies on the rail and a lot of things. The state's trying to get efficient, put efficiencies on on the rail and rail. A lot of things come in via rail.
Speaker 1:We're also about a day's drive from most of the large population centers, one or two days drive from the major population centers all along the West, and then we're with real we're. We're less than a day's drive from the port of Los Angeles and, um, and the uh, what's the other? Long Beach, long beach so, and then we're, and then you're. So rail, airport, universities, those are kind of that's the trifecta for economic development. If you have those three, that's great, and then there are other pieces that you can add to that too. But then we have great weather, we have hard-working industries, people, um, and we have a lot of people that want to move here. We're not. We don't have people leaving, right, you know, and we have hardworking industries, people, um, and we have a lot of people that want to move here.
Speaker 1:We're not we don't have people leaving right, you know and we have some other challenges.
Speaker 2:But um, and then you also I was gonna say water, I'll say it.
Speaker 1:I'll say it, it's water everybody so I'll tell you, freeport west is um, it's doing logistics. Logistics doesn't use water to the extent that, like yeah, some other manufacturing.
Speaker 2:I think think it's the lowest.
Speaker 1:I think it's almost the lowest. Food manufacturing brings a lot, uses a lot of water.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah Right.
Speaker 1:And certain. You know there are certain like batteries or things like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then they have a wastewater too.
Speaker 1:So those are all things. We look at all of these different things. I also know this weird thing like we're at a great neutral altitude for ice cream, which is why we had Blue Bunny. Oh, really yeah because if you have it at a high elevation and then you ship it to a lower elevation, you're going to open the container and be disappointed because it's going to shrink. Whoa, I didn't even think about that, and then likewise you do it at sea level and you take it to the mountains. It's going to blow up.
Speaker 2:Marshmallow industry. We need to get the marshmallow industry in here.
Speaker 1:That's probably another one. I was trying to think of all the things that would make that helpful.
Speaker 1:And those are just weird, like random facts that make you really good at trivia, that you learn, and I love that part. I love that you're constantly learning. I learned something new about an industry like the hospitals. Why would a hospital come here? Intermountain has such a huge presence. We have really great medical. Why are so many hospitals interested in this area? Yeah, there are a couple of things. We have a great payer group, so people are insured and they pay their bills, and then we have a lot of doctors who are not affiliated with Intermountain who want lab space, and so they want another hospital to come to the area.
Speaker 2:That's interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:If you're looking for a nice cup of coffee and you're in downtown St George, fs Coffee Co, that's where you're going to want to stop. It's right there on the corner of Tabernacle and Main Street in downtown St George. So if you got a bicycle, ride it on down there and grab a drip of coffee and tell them the 435 guys sent you, let's rattle these off. Okay, winco, that's a big oneco, so winco.
Speaker 1:we're really excited about it's on the north side of the freeway at the new interchange at exit 11 on main street right by the, the, the hot spring, or the the springs, the boilers, the boilers, the boilers yeah, so that was 11 acre piece.
Speaker 1:We call it the rc willie piece, but that was a piece of land that the city of washington owned for a long time and then they decided to put that interchange there and then we decided to put it out for RFP and we look at it differently from a private landowner. We're not trying to get the most money out of the piece the way a private developer would.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what's the best thing to put there?
Speaker 1:We want to do what's best for the community. So we know that we needed a grocer on the north side. We know that Greensprings is very congested with the Costco and the Walmart and the you know the other things there. And then we also have growing communities on the North side. We have the Brio and Green Springs and you know a lot and the Solente, all of those building out. So we know they need some, they need a grocer. And then grocers hits that high tax dollar. It's an employee owned company and so you know we were, we, we know we wanted a grocer and and we had kind of heard keep your ear to the ground that WinCo had been looking at our market. And it turns out they were. They had been looking at our market for about eight years.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 1:And they couldn't find the spot that they wanted. So we put it out for RFP. We had a lot of really good proposals. We put them through a committee to rank those and we didn't necessarily go on highest offer, although Winko's was right up there, close to not the highest offer, but the second highest. We we did what's called a value per square foot. So we looked at the tax revenues, both in terms of property tax and sales tax revenue back to the city. That helps offer, offset that burden on the residents, and then it also brings a, a, a grocer. That people. That that is a draw. That that people. It's something that people will come from outside of the area to spend money, which Washington city hasn't had. We have a lot of people going to the Costco in St George and investing in St George's quality of life and their, their parks and trails and everything that they do, which is great. But we want to capture as much of that as possible. So the WNCO is a great way to do that.
Speaker 2:So they'll be coming in.
Speaker 1:They're all approved. They'll submit their construction drawings within the next 60 days or so and then they want to try to open towards the end of 2026. And they'll have four outbuildings with that. We don't know those businesses yet, but those will be coming through.
Speaker 2:And those are typically going to be neighborhood services type type uh uh businesses right, yeah, it's a.
Speaker 1:it's a C3 zoning.
Speaker 2:So, anything. Yeah, those out parcels, so maybe a restaurant, maybe like a fast casual restaurant restaurant. You might get a soda shop or a cookie store. Just kidding, I hope not uh, okay, those we have too many of those they do so well here though I know everybody's stopping sugar. It's not good for you, it's poison. Okay, exit 13 auto mall's good one. I don't think we would need to deep dive deep into that one, uh can I tell you some highlights on that one uh maserati no, so finley mccray hepler tried to spread that rumor right out of the gate.
Speaker 2:I was like maserati, come on, dude why are you bringing that? Up.
Speaker 1:He's hopeful he's not coming out of nowhere. Um uh, there are, because it's yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2:That's fair enough. I'm sorry, mccray, that was. Yeah, that was too well and he's great.
Speaker 1:So, and he's gotten better. I've lectured him a little bit and he's very receptive to it. So it's good I'm like hey, don't kill our deals and let's make sure I can't say anything. Yeah, he says it on all videos. He's like I can't, I can't, just close your head.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry. That's good. I like that. He's doing that and he's. He's helped helping draw. He's doing the short, I'm doing the long. He does the short stuff I try to like. How do we dive deeper into some of the stuff that he does?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Okay, so, yeah, so that was a SITLA deal, so it was a competitive deal for the developers with SITLA before it even comes to the city, right. And so part of their contract with SITLA is that they have invited brands, and so if you go to the santa hillsautomallcom you can see the brands that are invited. So it has to be within those brands. So I can't tell you the brands, because there are more brands that are invited than that will actually be that there's room for, but it will be within that.
Speaker 1:And then it was a little slow to start because what? The because of the way that they developed it, but I think it was it was smart for them. They did all the infrastructure and got pad-ready sites basically, and so Finley took a little bit longer, but you'll see the next dealerships come quicker and they've got LOIs and they're finishing up deals and I'll let them make that announcement.
Speaker 2:That's theirs to make. So we got a bunch more coming on that. One, how many? Two, three?
Speaker 1:Last. So Greg Whitehead, who is part of the Santa Hills team, gave an update in January and said that they have six. Six, wow, they have six that are looking at.
Speaker 2:Tesla better be on that list. I hope Tesla's on that one. Just a little spot. They just need like a little tiny store. They don't even need a big lot. Okay, cpit team initiatives oh, I would tell you really quickly. It sounds too long-distance, it's like ATM machine machine right Automatic Teller Machine Machine. Okay, it prints money for me.
Speaker 1:No, I'm just saying that the acronym is dumb like that. People call it ATM machine.
Speaker 2:Okay, got it.
Speaker 1:So it's Automatic Teller Machine, machine Technically, technically. So CPIT is just. Cpit is something that Washington City is doing because we've traditionally been a residential, mostly residential to get ready for this commercial that's coming at us and to get ready to it, to including this huge industrial investment, the retail that's coming along I-15. So that's been an internal effort. It's called the Continual Process Improvement Team effort. It's the it's called the continual process improvement team. So, um, there there is. We have a very supportive council and mayor and, um, you know we've we've had a lot of. You know Washington city is not the city it was 10 years ago or even five years ago. We have new department heads and what we're doing is we're trying to change our processes and processes internally to it, to respond quickly and to address these commercial projects that are coming, and so we just call it continual process improvement, because I don't think we're ever done.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And I think that's a good attitude to have. We want to be cognizant of not just what's convenient for us on this side of the counter, but whoever's on the other side of the counter, and that just has to do with you know.
Speaker 2:Efficiency.
Speaker 1:Yeah and well, efficiency, and then just providing good service overall.
Speaker 2:I mean we are a service.
Speaker 1:That's what the city does. That's what the you know, that's what that's. That's why the we have employees that would need to provide services to the residents of washington city we have like five minutes, okay, maybe 10.
Speaker 2:why don't we, why don't we allow residential and commercial areas? Why don't we have commercial with housing combined?
Speaker 1:I think that's a one-size-fits-all. I think it makes sense for some cities. I think for Washington City that's problematic because we have a limited commercial left commercial areas and what we did was we did allow people commercial areas, and what we did was we did allow people. And over time, if you look at what was originally in the general plan, they'll even just the last time it was updated of what areas would be commercial, and landowners came in and said, well, I want to do a general plan amendment and change this to residential because that's what's hot right now, and so I'm going to do residential, residential.
Speaker 1:But what happens when you get too much commercial, you know, then it squeezes out some residential and when you get too, it's commercial on top of commercial. I mean, when you go to a place, you drive past five places before you get to that place, right, and commercial retailers tend to be. Some of them will go first in and there'll be an anchor and some of them are like lemmings. They want the anchor and then everybody goes. So that's why these pieces for Washington City are critical.
Speaker 1:The Winko is an anchor. People are going to want to be around that, so that helps to get some great commercial products, services and jobs close to where Washington city folks live, so that they don't have to travel. They can still travel into, obviously, into St George, but they don't have to. They have some options and that reduces traffic. That ultimately, you know, reduces traffic, eases traffic in St George and some of those, those areas that are that are that you can't build roads large enough. Right, people always say build more roads, build more. Well, you know, roads take land too and it's not the most efficient way.
Speaker 2:I guess the reason I asked is that and we don't have to dive too deep. There's so many things I want to talk to you about.
Speaker 1:We get the we're going to have a little bit of that, probably in our downtown, like the mixed use.
Speaker 2:That's what I was going to say, is that? Kind of transition to this is the downtown. Is there a city that we could say, hey, we kind of want the downtown to look like that city that somebody could be like, oh okay, Do you have like kind of like a little general?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that will be part of this RFP package. So over the last three years Washington City has been working on land assemblage. So over the last three years Washington City has been working on land assemblage. And then Washington City has its own assets, because you have to plan for things like you know, just like St George is doing, where they're expanding their, where they're building a new city hall, or you have to build a new police station or you have to do something like that, right, and you know, look at Washington County, no-transcript. But then we also want to have that hub. We want to have that downtown.
Speaker 1:Washington City used to have a little bit of a downtown, but then Telegraph was a state road and the state came in and made Telegraph really great for moving traffic but not really great for downtown. In fact, they pulled out some of the businesses that had been there. Just to make it wider. The nice and grocery store went out of business. The, the burger place. If you remember the burger place, used to ride my bike with my little kids in the trailer and go down the burger place. There was a walnut tree or a, yeah, walnut tree in the in the back that I sometimes eat some dusty walnuts um, but uh yeah, so the downtown is it?
Speaker 2:Yeah?
Speaker 1:So you'd also decided you know we need a new interchange, and so that ended up being right at Main Street. And so now you know, like I said, change happens and we don't always get to direct that, but sometimes, when something like that happens, you can then say, OK, well, what do we do with this now?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it opens up options. Right, it opens up options.
Speaker 1:Right. It opens up options, and so that's what Washington City is about to embark on is. We hired some consultants early on who helped us to determine which areas of land were most. You want to start with a core. You don't want to, excuse me, you don't want to develop all over the place. You want to have a plan in place and you want to start with a core. You don't want to excuse me, you don't want to, you know, develop all over the place. You want to have a plan in place and you want to start with a core.
Speaker 1:And so we did land assemblage. We picked up some pieces that we knew were problem, pieces that if combined would be, could pencil and would work better, and so we've been in a process doing that, and now we have a committee that is about to engage with to get some help, to give some direction, and so we engaged a private sector to help shape the vision Right. So I don't when you say you know this city, we want to be like that. I don't think any city says we want to be like them, because everybody wants to be unique, because people are invested in their community and they want to be unique. But I think you can take something from here or something. Yeah, that's what I think.
Speaker 2:Yeah, in their community and they want to be unique.
Speaker 1:But I think you can take something from here or something, yeah yeah, and kind of put it together. So I think, I think that's what we're doing. So we're taking concepts, we're taking, you know, walkable, walkable, uh, mid-block crossings walkable. Zero setback, um, alleyways, reduced parking. You know, going vertical a little bit. You know, all of these things are things that are elements of a good downtown. You want to bring in arts, you want to bring in entrepreneurs, you want to bring in businesses, you want to bring all of these elements together, but you have to do it in a way that makes sense, and I think we have really good bones in Washington City for that.
Speaker 1:And that interchange is going to also make it really convenient to access it, and then that interchange also made some of this land assemblage possible, and then selling the parcel of land that the city had owned for a long time and had at a low basis to a grocer, that's going to bring in great tax revenues. And then the city also brought in cash for that allowed us to complete that assemblage, and so you'll see that roll out in the next little while.
Speaker 2:It's probably pretty cool to see like being there as long as you have isn't quite there yet, but I can see how, like you really start to, it takes five, six years just to get really your feet on the ground, to like move things around and then and then now you got to, you get to kind of start seeing things shape with the original vision as you first came in.
Speaker 1:I knew economic development, but I didn't know it from the municipal side, and it's a little different Right, and I understand it a lot better now and I think I appreciate it too and I appreciate the, even though it can be a slow process sometimes and that's frustrating for folks. I think it's important because we have to be. We have to be careful. You know you get one, you get one chance sometimes and there are definitely areas where you can point to that, say that was a mistake or you know this, but this didn't go so well, and so I think it's actually the best, it's like the easiest.
Speaker 2:That's where the peanut gallery does on Facebook, but anyway, keep going. Yeah Well, I, I, I say it's too easy to.
Speaker 1:it's too easy to. I don't know. I find it's a place. It's easy, it's great for some things and other things. I'll tell you this If you're going to be, a municipal employee you better have thick skin and it's best to just probably stay away from.
Speaker 1:Because stay away from Facebook Cause it's easy, it's really easy to say something, but you know it's a lot harder. And what I really respect from residents that do this and what I didn't do before I went, so I mean pot, pot, kettle, kettle, so is really engaged. Yeah, so I do appreciate the folks that come to city council meetings and not just when the development is in their neighborhood you know that watch them and that are engaged. In fact, we have a an email Let us know at Washington City dot org.
Speaker 2:Write that down, let us know.
Speaker 1:Let us know at Washington City dot org. So residents of Washington City can email at any time. Everything is tracked, it's routed to the appropriate departments and then everything is responded to.
Speaker 2:We're going to put it in the description too, and then, if it's not in the description, comment it. I'll make sure if I miss it. But yeah, that's a good one.
Speaker 1:Probably the thing that your listeners, especially if they live in Washington City, but if they have investment or interest in Washington City, the other thing would be the coming soon map.
Speaker 2:Okay, so that's a map. That's the link you sent me, right? Yes, okay, perfect.
Speaker 1:So that's just WashingtonCityorg forward slash ed for economic development. That will take you right to the economic development page. We have a fantastic IT team and they have a really great search function. So I know not all municipal websites have are intuitive and really easy to get around in, but our search function is great in there and they do a lot of work to keep that up, but that's a great resource.
Speaker 1:It's a great resource If you're an investor, if you're a landowner, if you're a business looking to come to Washington city. There are several layers.
Speaker 2:Or a resident looking to move into an area and say what's coming like, what's going there right in washington city you could just go right to the map.
Speaker 1:This is going to tell you this is what I tell people it's not on the map, it's not going to exist probably well, I tell people, I go to all the city council meetings, I go to all the planning commission meetings where all this land use is, and they make the decisions and then I put it on the map. So it's a way to you can watch them and I encourage you to watch them. But if you want to see all the decisions displayed in a, you know, interactive way, it's there. But it's also. It's also the infrastructure. You know if we, if we're doing a big project and there might be a road closure or if we have a new interchange going.
Speaker 1:In we had a couple open. We had the one on seven, the one on I-15. In we had a couple open. We had the one on seven, the one on I-15. So all of that new parks that open, new trails, new trailheads, really anything that's going on at the city I try to keep updated in a layer, and the new layer that I just added was something because we work really close with commercial real estate brokers and agents that are interested in this area is the for sale and agents that are interested in in this area is the for sale, for lease, so that's only commercial properties, but it's land or buildings or um for sale for lease in washington city oh cool, that's really helpful.
Speaker 1:Um, and it links directly. Rather than me get in the middle of it, it has it laid out on a map it has.
Speaker 2:The brokers send this to you. Where do you syndicate?
Speaker 1:no, I scrape the data. You do I.
Speaker 2:You have to go to links and nai and uh. All this is a commercial. If you're listening to me, neil walters, I know you're not listening to this, neil, but if we could, if we could find, if we could find a commercial mls, that'd be really helpful.
Speaker 1:But in washington city you got it, so yeah, so if you, if you click on, it's a numbered list. So if you click on the number of, you know the, the property that you're looking at, it'll open up a left side menu and then I mean sometimes I have drone video of the because I know people like to walk the dirt and they like to see what it looks like and see where you know. So, whatever, whatever information I can gather from it, I'll do that and it will also have the listing agents contact information so that you can contact that person, not me. Some people think I do commercial real estate or help them find land. I don't do that.
Speaker 2:I mean I will.
Speaker 1:I'll do as much as I can, but I don't want to get in the middle of these agents and what they're doing. That's not my profession. I do deal with the municipal land, so not all of it, but you know, if it's an economic development project. I am involved in that and and I'm happy to share information about that.
Speaker 2:You got a dinner to go to. We could talk about so much more.
Speaker 1:That went quick.
Speaker 2:I really appreciate you coming on. I think this is going to be helpful for everybody. Thank you, in Washington City, it's going to be helpful.
Speaker 1:I, you know, I think it's Washington City is assets that you can draw from. So I love that we're working together and I love all the new people in town that are interested in this and that are that are that are working on this effort. Yeah, I think Chad, I loved watching his perspective and I really appreciate you inviting him and then, you know, having me come in and kind of tell the Washington story, because we have some awesome things happening in Washington City that I think are really going to be a great service to the residents there, of which I am a resident. I live over in Siena Hills. I'm really excited about there. I mean, I probably shouldn't say this, but I met seven brothers probably at least once a week. They know my name, but I'm just excited about a new restaurant close to home.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you know, my daughter worked at black bear restaurant up there on exit 13. And so, um, you know, we we enjoy the parks and trails as much as everybody else, so it's it's nice to see a little more balance coming to Washington city and coming in where it's.
Speaker 2:Next time we talk, we got to talk about Warner Valley. That's the next one. That's a whole other thing that Next time we talk. We got to talk about Warner Valley.
Speaker 1:That's the next one. That's a whole other thing. That's probably a whole hour conversation. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:So next time we'll talk about that, but I appreciate you coming on. Have a great night, thank you so? Much. We'll see you out there, everybody, okay, thanks. Thanks for listening in If you enjoyed this episode, please. We love your support. We love the dialogue. We want to continue that going. Find us at realestate435.com. We'd love to help you find a house here in town or help you get wherever you're going.