On the eve of the pandemic, Q Factor opened a vast complex in the Granary district called Industry, which provides ready-made spaces for businesses inside the cavernous shell of an old pipe foundry. The latest population surge isn’t driven by a Zoom boom, either. State capital Salt Lake City is a 90-minute flight from California’s Bay Area and is projected to be America’s strongest property market in 2022, according to listings company Realtor. Utah has been the fastest-growing US state over the past decade as Americans go in search of cheaper rents, lower taxes and new opportunity. What’s spurring all this is a combination of new arrivals and industries. “That will be a brewery that will be a food hall,” she says, gesturing enthusiastically through the window of her Tesla as we weave between building sites. She takes monocle around the Granary and Post districts, enclaves of worn-out mills and the nearest thing to a seedy side of town.
“One of the first things we did was buy that building and take down that sign.” Winkler’s firm, Q Factor, is developing almost 15 hectares of Salt Lake into a mix of offices, retail, residential and hospitality.
“When I moved here four years ago, there was a big ‘guns and gold’ sign at the entrance to the city,” says Ellen Winkler, a Wyoming export. Pressing up against the silver-streaked peaks of the Wasatch Range, part of the Rocky Mountains, this is one of the fastest-growing – and most surprising – business hubs in the US. They’ll also say that, just like the surf for Californians, every ceo in Salt Lake likes to get an hour in on the slopes before work. Spend a bit of time in Salt Lake City and you’ll soon hear people say that this is the new Denver – a reference to the rapidly growing Coloradan capital.
By Christopher Lord Photography Adam Amengual
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