PrinterLogic headquarters on Tech Ridge makes headway

One of the newest buildings to go up on the 150-acre Tech Ridge in St. George is taking shape. Long-term plans for the expansive Tech Ridge development include space for buildings housing multiple tech companies surrounded by residential neighborhoods, restaurants and hotels, all flanked by a large amount of open space for recreation.


PrinterLogic’s design plans for the building reflect the development’s “live-work-play” vision, including a large basketball court in the middle of the office space. PrinterLogic broke ground on the new building in May. Although PrinterLogic does not plan on hiring much more than its current workforce of approximately 190 employees, depending on how robust the economy becomes and how future accusations impact the business model. St George News

Road projects make up almost half of nearly $20 million increase to Washington City budget

The Washington City Council adopted a $76 million preliminary budget for the 2019-20 fiscal. The proposed budget is a nearly $20 million increase over last year’s budget due to a number of capital projects.


The capital projects portion of the budget covers items related to infrastructure improvement within the city. The amount projected for the capital projects portion of the fund is $13 million. Among the capital projects of note Washington City will be pursuing during the 2019-20 fiscal year include continuing work on the Hellhole trailhead ($500,000), Merrill Road ($2.5 million), the Warm Springs Park and trailhead ($1 million), a pressurized irrigation master plan ($90,000), the rebuilding of the Staheli electrical substation ($2.5 million) and a number of other projects. St. George News

TCN Unveils New Global Headquarters in Downtown St. George

TCN, Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based call center technology for enterprises, contact centers, BPOs and collection agencies worldwide, announced Wednesday the opening of its new global headquarters in the heart of St. George at 162 N. 400 E., St. George, Utah to support the company’s steady growth and future expansion. Located directly off St. George Boulevard, the new headquarters include 12,000 square feet of central office space, providing a larger, easily accessible and more visual location for customers, employees and the community to congregate, interact and collaborate.

TCN plans to hire aggressively and double its workforce within the next year. TCN is especially focused on hiring and nurturing local talent and continues to host community events such as: informational luncheons, youth code camps and mini job fairs for undergraduates studying engineering, IT, marketing or business at Dixie State University. Utah Business Magazine

Could St. George’s high-tech vision become reality?

This week St. George City released a new analysis of the “Ridgetop Complex,” the property previously occupied by the city’s old airport. The city also issued a “Request for Qualifications” to developers interested in building out the first phase of the proposed “Tech Ridge.”

The first major project there, a new $45 million campus headquarters for the Dixie Applied Technology College, is already under construction. The surrounding area, all owned by the city, is being reserved for tech-based businesses and high-pay industries like healthcare and financial services, along with higher-end homes, apartments and some shopping. The first phase would include about 28 acres of new development along the northern edge of the property, neighboring the new DXATC campus.

The new market analysis, performed by The Concord Group, a California-based consulting firm, suggests a meticulous effort to foster higher-paying office development could pay off long-term. The buildout could take longer - 15 to 20 years, based on current market trends - but eventually the effort could lead to some 1.7 million square feet of new development, along with nearly 2,000 new jobs, according to the report. The Spectrum

South Central Communications builds state-of-the-art fiber network in Kanab

South Central Communications (SCC) is making a major investment in a state-of-the-art communications network that will provide a 100 percent fiber optic connection to every home, business, school, library, and government building in Kanab. In addition to providing crystal clear voice calls, the new 100 percent fiber optic network has the tremendous benefit of providing exponentially greater bandwidth capacity to SCC’s Kanab network. By increasing overall network bandwidth capacity and removing all congestion, this allows SCC fiber customers access to higher internet speed packages which are being necessitated by the ever increasing number of internet enabled devices within the home (think tablets, TVs, set-top boxes, smart phones, game consoles, etc.) Southern Utah News

Economic engines

The annual Washington County Economic Summit had taken on a somewhat gloomy atmosphere the past few years. It’s no secret the Southern Utah economy has struggled, and the most populous area for this part of the state needed a boost.

As we learned during the economic report presented by Lecia Langston, regional economist with the Utah Department of Workforce Services, the recession has technically been over for some time. And while it is true the economy is still not firing on all cylinders, it’s also true that it isn’t stuck in neutral any longer.

The overall message at this year’s summit — nearly universal from presenters and breakout session facilitators —was that the things are looking up for Southern Utah and that this region has a great opportunity to seize the moment and make itself an economic leader in the state.

No longer driven so dominantly by the housing industry, the area’s economy is on a slow but steady improvement trend. One way to bolster the recovery and add not just jobs but higher-paying jobs is by embracing the technology trend. As Fraser Bullock, the keynote speaker from Sorenson Capital, told the approximately 800 people in attendance, Southern Utah could become a “tech hub” if it utilizes its resources.

It seems that an emphasis on technology would be appropriate given the portfolio the state institutions already possess. Utah State, Weber State, the University of Utah, Utah Valley University and Southern Utah University all have niches. While many of them have technology-based degrees among their offerings, Dixie could play a huge role in helping develop not just the Southern Utah economy but the workforce of the entire state. The Spectrum

Utah sheriffs back away from plan to scan license plates

An outcry over privacy rights derails use of scanners to track drug smugglers along I-15. Two federally donated license plate scanners meant to track drug trafficking won’t be installed on Interstate 15 in southwest Utah.

The Beaver County sheriff decided that implementing the new technology wasn’t worth a community battle over perceived civil rights violations.

The Washington County sheriff wants more to study the issue.

Both sheriffs were slated to testify in favor of the scanners — to be donated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration — at a June 20 meeting of the Utah Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Interim Committee.

But in the face of public opposition, the law officers will not be attending the meeting, and they have no immediate intentions to install the scanners. Salt Lake Tribune