The Sports Academy & Racquet Club, Cache Valley’s premier health club facility, will improve its world class building with a major expansion project - just in time for its 10th anniversary.

To ensure members have the best sports experience possible, President Keith Larsen today pledged $1 million for state-of-the art upgrades to the facility at 1655 N. 200 East in North Logan.

Construction will begin immediately on a new 30,000-square-foot tennis facility with four new indoor courts to replace three that were displaced on January 12, after two weeks of nearly nonstop rain and heavy snow caused the tennis bubble to collapse.

Larsen said the new tennis structure has been long awaited and it will give all tennis players what they deserve, a top end professional tennis complex.

“We have been working on this expansion for years. I am glad that Mother Nature finally forced the change,” Larsen said. “I can’t wait to unveil the finished product.”

As part of a separate 15,000-square-foot renovation project, two existing indoor tennis courts will be replaced with a new Cardio Studio featuring a theater staging system with four large media screens. “The members will be in awe of the new layout to use a treadmill,” Larsen said.

A walking track will be constructed around the stage and cardio equipment will be relocated in this remodeled area, creating more space for strength equipment in its current location. “That area tends to get the biggest draw,” said Joel Larson, chief financial officer for Wasatch Acquisitions & Capital, which owns the venture capital company. “People like to use that exercise equipment, so we need to expand that area a little bit. We’ll build a nice facility there.”

A movable wall will also be installed in the dance room for pilates classes. The new tennis facility will open in September and the entire project will be finished by Jan. 1, Larsen estimated.

Operational since 1996, the Sports Academy & Racquet Club offers patrons top-of-the-line recreational amenities, such as temperature-controlled indoor and outdoor Olympic-sized swimming pools and a variety of ball courts.

The club also caters to clients by providing exceptional features, such as specially designed flooring throughout the building to protect the knees, as well as professional trainers to help clients maximize their workouts.

For more information about the Sports Academy & Racquet Club, call (435) 753-7500 or go online www.sportsacademy.com.

Wasatch Property Management, Inc., a Logan-based real estate development company with holdings throughout the western United States, has hired Justin Jensen, 31, as Vice President of Wasatch Acquisitions & Capital (WAC).

As tax manager for WAC, Jensen oversees the preparation of more than 200 tax returns and provides tax planning strategies and consulting for Wasatch property acquisitions and dispositions, as well as for Wasatch venture companies that are not related to real estate.

“As I have gotten to know my co-workers, it is clear to me that (owner) Dell Loy Hansen has assembled an elite team of professionals at Wasatch Property Management and I am honored to have been invited to join his team,” Jensen said. “I share in the team’s excitement and vision for the future of the company.”

A native of Preston, Idaho, Jensen earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting in 2000 and a master’s degree in the same field in 2001, graduating magna cum laude from Utah State University. He worked from 2001-2005 in Seattle, WA as a senior tax associate for PricewaterhouseCoopers.

“I left Seattle - with the big clients and big dollars - thinking that Logan and Wasatch Property Management would be a nice-and-easy slow change of pace from the fast lane of the big city,” Jensen said. “Shortly after arriving, I told Mr. Hansen that I felt I nearly had my arms ripped off as I jumped aboard the Wasatch train. It was moving a lot quicker than I had originally anticipated. Wasatch Property Management is a fast-moving company involved in very exciting business deals which require a very high level of expertise and professionalism.”

Jensen is a CPA and an active member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, as well as the Washington Society of Certified Public Accountants.

While in Seattle, Jensen also served on the Board of Directors for the Kitsap County Community Development Corporation, where he developed an interest in politics that he hopes to pursue in Cache Valley.

He lives in Logan, UT with his wife Jenilyn and their two sons, ages 3 and 5. In his spare time, Jensen, initially a music major at USU, enjoys singing and playing the guitar and drums. Now that April 15 is behind him for another year, Jensen plans to make some time to play golf and take some scenic rides on his motorcycle.

Rick Johnson joins Freedom Advisors Salt Lake City businessman Rick Johnson recently became chief operations officer of Salt Lake City’s Freedom Advisors, a venture company that provides risk management services for Wasatch Property Management, Inc., its affiliates and venture companies.

Since 1983, Johnson worked with American Stores Company and Albertsons, where he developed extensive experience in risk assessment, multi-line claims, litigation, insurance coverage and regulatory compliance. He also earned the insurance industry professional designation of Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter, or CPCU. Johnson decided to try something new when he left his position as director of risk management for the nation’s second largest food and drug retailer, with 225,000 employees.

At Freedom Advisors, he will manage insurance services and administer claims for workers compensation and general property for a much smaller group of approximately 450 employees. “It’s been different, but it’s exciting and entrepreneurial,” Johnson said. “I’ve already learned a lot.”Johnson said his immediate goal at Freedom Advisors is to reduce insurance costs and his long-term strategy is to include third parties –such as apartment owners and property managers – in reaching risk management solutions.

Johnson lives with his wife Tanya in Salt Lake City. The couple has three children, two grown sons and a daughter who attends Utah State University. In his spare time Johnson enjoys skiing, fishing, hiking and gardening. He is a member of the Tracy Aviary board of trustees and past member of the board of trustees for Utah Children.

For more information, contact Johnson at 1-801-961-1077 or rjohnson@netwasatch.com

Wasatch Property Management, Inc. is pleased to announce that Bryan Wrigley, 30, has been hired as the new senior vice president of Wasatch Acquisitions, a division of this Logan-based real estate development company with holdings throughout the western United States.

Wrigley’s immediate professional goals, as outlined by Wasatch President Dell Loy Hansen, are to acquire $200 million of real estate over the next year and to participate in the sale of approximately $150 million of the company’s existing portfolio. “He’s really going to heat things up in the real estate world,” Hansen said, adding that Wasatch is extremely fortunate to have Wrigley on board.

Previous employment at Salt Lake City’s Price Legal Corp., acquired by Kimco Realty Corp., helped build Wrigley’s impressive resume when he underwrote $100 million in commercial real estate acquisitions and helped increase the value of the company’s real estate portfolio by 30 percent from 2000 to 2003. In 2000, Wrigley earned a bachelors of economics degree within the University of Utah high honors program. He graduated from Cornell University’s intensive Japanese language program in 2004 and earlier this month (May, 2005) he received a master’s degree in real estate finance and development from Columbia University.

Wrigley received employment offers from several large investment firms before agreeing to pursue “daunting” goals at Wasatch. “It’s exciting that I will have the opportunity to work for a premiere company like Wasatch, but still be able to be close to my roots,” the Salt Lake City native said. Wrigley and his wife Melissa have a two-year-old son. His favorite pastime is spending time with his family, particularly outdoors. For more information, contact Wrigley at (435) 755-2071

Renovating the historic First Security Bank building on 405 S. Main St. in downtown Salt Lake City was no easy task.

Abating asbestos from all 12 stories of the building; replacing 695 nonstandard windows, many with dissimilar dimensions; replacing mechanical and electrical systems; upgrading the building to meet the highest level seismic codes – and many other improvements cost investors a pricey $12.5 million.

Yet, owners say the formidable task of restoring the 1955 architectural treasure to its original grandeur – with the addition of the latest technology and the highest safety standards – only paled in comparison to the challenges brought on by David Yocom of the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office.

“We took the time to do the building right, to give it another 50 years of life,” said Dell Loy Hansen, principal investor for the First Security Bank Building, as well as the Wells Fargo skyscraper at 299 South Main St. in Salt Lake City. “We were, during this whole process, under accusation, under condemnation.”

After purchasing the First Security Bank Building in 2003 for $6.2 million to secure 571 valuable parking spaces in downtown Salt Lake City, Hansen’s Logan-based company, Wasatch Property Management, Inc., considered a range of options – from razing the First Security Bank building to updating the exterior. Then members of the Utah State Historical Society and Utah Heritage Foundation broached the subject of preserving the building.

As Wasatch vice president Paul Willie learned more about the architectural significance of the building, as well as the $2.8 million in tax credits available from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Wasatch scales tipped toward renovating the building.

Willie, who descends from members of the famous LDS Willie Handcart Company, has an appreciation for historic structures that is evident in his hometown of Mendon, Utah where he has spent time and money restoring and maintaining his grandfather’s 1865 home and the town’s original Old Rock Schoolhouse.

Willie also took on the restoration of the First Security Bank Building and quickly found support for the project from the Salt Lake County Council and Mayor Nancy Workman.

When it came to the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s office, though, Wasatch ran into a “firestorm” of pressure to tear the building down.

“Numerous times, David Yocom threw in our faces that, ‘This is a crummy, dilapidated, old building and I won’t put my attorneys in it,’” Hansen said. “They did, in closed session, tell us all the ways they would condemn us. There were some horrible statements.”

Wasatch offered to design a brand new office structure beside the First Security building for the County Attorneys to use during the renovation, but Hansen said Yocom declined.

The proposed partnership with the District Attorney’s office to use the signature office location between three courthouses would have saved the county infinite dollars, Hansen said.

“They could have walked to every courthouse,” he said. “Tens of thousands of dollars could have been saved on travel time.”

Wasatch executive John Dahlstrom said Yocom’s goal to raze the building and parking structure and condemn everything around it to build a new office building would have cost Salt Lake County taxpayers $40 million.

“It would have been astronomical…We came back in and restructured it so that there was no tax increase whatsoever,” Dahlstrom said.

Instead, no RDA money or other state funds were used to renovate the building, and the remodel has increased the value of the First Security building by more than $15 million. The commercial value over the next 20 years could generate additional property tax dollars of four million over the next 20 years, Hansen estimated.

“We finally just let the county go, did our own thing and created a wonderful building. The newest building in Salt Lake is 50 years old,” Dahlstrom said.

Hansen said the obstacles were numerous and negotiations took 18 months, but the renovation was the right thing to do and the result is a building of great value to the community.

“David Yocom would have torn a treasure out of the heart of Salt Lake. He had no vision of the future in maintaining our history and our pride,” Hansen said. “It’s now on the front cover of Architectural & Engineering Quarterly (Spring 2005).”

The 155,000 square foot renovation was complete in November (2004) and Wasatch expects the current occupancy rate of 50 percent to increase to 95 percent by the end of the year. Business owners are finding that the Class A offices are in one of the best locations in Salt Lake, with the most convenient parking.

Signed tenants include attorneys, federal government agencies, high tech business owners and Eagle Gate College, a private for-profit, career-training school. The school’s 500 students will utilize services downtown, take advantage of the TRAX transportation system and enhance the vibrant downtown culture, Hansen said.
“There was really, truly a good deed done here that didn’t have to happen,” Hansen said. “We swam against some pretty big odds.”

SIDEBAR: WHAT MAKES THE FIRST SECURITY BUILDING UNIQUE?

The First Security Bank Building, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was the first curtain wall structure west of the Mississippi and only the second in the United States in 1955 when it opened, according to Dell Loy Hansen, president of Wasatch Property Management, Inc., which purchased the building in 2003.
Supported by an internal steel frame, the 12-story office building is covered with a curtain wall of glass, steel and porcelain.

 “It really is contemporary because that is what all of the buildings are built like today,” said Paul Willie, Wasatch vice president. “It just needed a facelift after 50 years.”

In 1955, the $3 million First Security building was the first new building in downtown Salt Lake City in 28 years, marking the end of the Great Depression with air conditioning and elevators, and ornate details such red marble in the lobby and terrazzo floors with eyeball-shaped inlays that still dazzle tenants and visitors today.

Architect W.A. Sarmiento designed Utah’s first “International Style” skyscraper building in the early 1950s and was on hand in Nov. 2004 when the renovation was celebrated.

Although the interior of the building has been completely modernized, owners followed guidelines for historic restoration and kept its exterior as it was at the time of its opening.

LOGAN – A unique soccer complex, with two regulation outdoor fields and a 58,500-square-foot indoor facility, is one step away from kick-off – pending approval of the Cache County Council.

The proposed site at approximately 2775 North 200 East is an undeveloped parcel of land in North Logan near the Eccles Ice Center called Meadow View Park. The land to be developed was purchased with federal monies over 30 years ago to be used exclusively for recreational purposes. Cache County initially purchased the land to be used as a new county fairgrounds, but the project proved too expensive to pursue.

An agreement proposed by North Logan resident Dell Loy Hansen, who takes a high interest in youth education and training, was unanimously approved by the North Logan City Council in April. If approved by the Cache County Council tonight, the North Logan Soccer Complex will be built with donated funds and gifted to North Logan City. A non-profit organization, the Cache Valley Soccer Academy, will then operate the facility – handling property and building maintenance, organizing soccer events and managing personnel including coaches and referees - all at no cost to the city or county.

The potential economic impact of the North Logan Soccer Complex is exciting for city officials who foresee increases in generated sales tax, restaurant tax, hotel tax and local business income. “This facility will be a great addition to North Logan and the entire valley. Like the Eccles Ice Center, it will promote sports and recreation and will be a gathering place for our youth,” said Jeffrey M. Jorgensen, North Logan City administrator, in a letter to Cache County Council members. “We appreciate the generous donation that will make this possible and hope the Cache County Council supports and sustains the use of this property for this purpose.”

Cache Valley fields 5,000 youth soccer players each year and the Soccer Academy seeks to train those players who want to perform at a state and national level by utilizing professional coaches and staff, and spending time year-round to develop those skills. “The purpose of the facility is to improve skills and techniques of premier soccer players in the valley so they will be able to achieve their best performance,” said Hansen.

In addition to hosting soccer clinics, camps, leagues and tournaments, the North Logan Soccer Complex will also be home to an Olympic Development Program for all-star players in Northern Utah. The facility will be available to house unrelated community events such as a boat show or craft show.

The Cache County Council postponed their decision on Tuesday May 24, 2005 and agreed to gather more information before voting on June 14.

NORTH LOGAN – A new neighbor will soon be turning heads in North Logan with the latest in fashion apparel and fine home furnishings.

An 88,800 square-foot Kohl’s department store at Academy Square, at 1700 North Main Street in North Logan, will open Oct. 1 and, like the Kohl’s motto says, northern Utah shoppers should “expect great things.” John Dahlstrom, an executive at Wasatch Commercial Management, Inc., said many more great things are in store at the 125,000 square-foot Academy Square retail area that is under construction. “We’re working with several national retailers to fill those pads near Kohl’s,” Dahlstrom said.

Wasatch Commercial Management, part of the Wasatch family of companies, is responsible for the management, leasing and construction of more than two million square feet of high-end office and retail real estate. Academy Square is a “sweet spot” for commercial retailers because of its location on HW 91, between Kmart and Wal-Mart, Dahlstrom said. “A lot of people are unaware of the fact that North Logan is a growing retail area,” he said. “Kohl’s is on the move right now as far as opening new stores throughout the country and, as far as the demographics they’re looking for, Cache Valley is a perfect fit. Their merchandise fills a niche that’s really not being met by other area retailers.”

Scott Larsen, financial analyst for Wasatch Commercial Management, Inc. and manager of the Academy Square commercial project, said construction is on schedule for completion by Aug. 1, in spite of record snow and rainfall since breaking ground in November.

“The biggest obstacle we’ve had is the rain. Working through the weather and trying to meet deadlines has been a struggle,” Larsen said. “But everybody’s been working together out there, getting us back on track.” Major contractors involved in the project include LeGrand Johnson Construction Co., Ron Foster Construction and Wadman Corp.

Located just a few miles from USU, Academy Square is aptly named because of the opportunity to gain knowledge by developing the project from the ground up, said 28-year-old Larsen, a 2001 graduate of USU’s accounting program.

“It’s been a pretty steep learning curve for me,” Larsen said. Wasatch executives praised North Logan City officials and the Utah Department of Transportation for carefully developing a thorough plan to mitigate potential traffic problems in the area.

“They have been very responsive and helpful to work with,” Larsen said. North Logan Mayor Val Potter said Academy Square is a welcome addition to the city’s retail area that will tie businesses to the north and south together.

“It takes advantage of a key piece of real estate in the middle of North Logan’s commercial district,” Potter said. “It allows new businesses to come in and adds life to existing ones.”

Wasatch President Dell Loy Hansen, a resident of North Logan, said his company declined financial incentives from taxpayer sources to develop Academy Square.

“We took no money from the city. We specifically wanted to make sure that the city kept all the money, even though some was offered,” Hansen said. “Our thought is that we’ve got to be able to have retail development stand on its own merits and not have cities compete against cities.”

Wasatch also participated with North Logan to improve city infrastructure by installing of a 36-inch drainage pipe to facilitate storm water, following best practices for future clean water protection. “It is important, as you build a city out, that you don’t just leave that undone,” Hansen said.