The LDS Church’s estimated $1.5 billion-$2 billion City Creek Center is progressing on schedule, with a completion expected by mid-2012.

The first major building of City Creek – Richards Court Condominiums – completed in May. The 32-story high-rise features 90 high-end units and is being built by Okland Construction of Salt Lake City.

A 5,400-stall underground parking garage is also nearing completion, according to LDS Presiding Bishop David Burton. The rest of the 23-acre, multiuse project will include retail and housing, along with a new Harmon’s grocery store.

Besides Okland, Jacobsen Construction and Big-D Construction, both of Salt Lake City, are building portions of City Creek.

Other noteworthy building projects along the Wasatch Front include the $130-million USTAR project at the University of Utah (Layton Construction), the $30-million Trolley Square Renovation project in Salt Lake (Okland), the estimated $200-million Montage Resort at Deer Valley (Layton) and the $68-million Utah Museum of Natural History at Rio Tinto Center in Salt Lake (Big-D).

Thorn says the heavy-highway market is robust, with a myriad of much-needed major highway projects currently underway, including the $1.25-billion Interstate 15 CORE project in Utah County (Provo River Constructors), the $600-million Mountain View Corridor from Salt Lake to Utah County (Kiewit-Clyde JV) and the $108-million 114th South Interchange/Expansion (Ames-Wadsworth Bros. JV).

“Our heavy-highway contractors are for the most part staying busy,” Thorn says. “UDOT has $4 billion of work under contract, and fortunately we have a legislative group that is supportive of free enterprise and realizes the importance of having a good transportation system.”

One highly anticipated project contract expected to be awarded in October is a new National Security Administration data center located near Camp Williams in northern Utah County. The project, which was recently short-listed to five teams � three of which are led by Utah general contractors � is expected to cost between $1 billion and $2 billion.

Outlook for Rest of 2010

Construction executives and firm owners are trying to remain optimistic in the face of unquestioned adversity and an unknown future.

�We�ve done a good job diversifying,� Hunt says. �Our ability to shift from one market to another has been huge for us. A lot of contractors, when times are good, just pick the low-hanging fruit, and they�re not planting seeds for the future.�

Jim Gramoll, president of Gramoll Construction of North Salt Lake, says, �We still have work out there because of the relationships we�ve had. Our reputation has allowed us to get work in this tough time, and that�s the single greatest edge we�ve had.�

Layton says, �We�ve had a really good first quarter because we�ve specifically chosen to diversify our business model and expand our expertise into different project types. We�re trying to position ourselves to be where the new economy is going to be.�

Hogan says his firm will make it through this recession with �patience and time. If we manage our company properly, we�ll have opportunities to have success. There are no quick fixes. We have to be committed to patience and developing our resources.�