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OLYMPIC PARK, USU PROJECTS ALSO HONORED BY AGC OF UTAH; STACK REAL ESTATE WINS OWNER OF THE YEAR
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah’s ski slopes are a training destination for Olympic athletes from around the world — a distinction that creates an intense need to adequately house those who are honing their skills in the Greatest Snow on Earth.
That’s why the Utah Olympic Park Legacy Foundation recently partnered with Jacobsen Construction to build Residences at Olympic Park — a short-term lodging facility used by athletes while they live in Utah to become the best in their sport. Jacobsen’s work on this gorgeous, 72-unit building was honored at an awards celebration this month by the Associated General Contractors of Utah (AGC) as the Multi-Family Residential Project of the Year for 2019.
Project Manager Jason Middaugh, who is vice president of building services at Jacobsen, said the award-winning project was a resounding success “largely due to the team spirit, communication and capturing the vision of the client.”
“What made it the most rewarding was working with the Olympic Park Foundation to capture their vision of making life better for their athletes that come and train at the facility from all over the world,” Middaugh said.
The facility, near Park City, also provides lodging to Utah Olympic Park employees. It began taking tenants in September. Residences at Olympic Park is a pristine and supremely convenient amenity for tenants — but it is also an affordable option for those who wish to stay there, which is “really going to improve the quality of life for the athletes,” Middaugh said.
“We had plenty of opportunities to meet with the athletes and that really helped us capture the vision,” he said.
AGC also honored Jacobsen with the Overall Project of the Year award for its Utah Valley Hospital campus replacement and expansion, and the Higher Education/Research Project of the Year award for its construction of the Utah State University Life Sciences Building — making this the second industry group to select these two projects for awards in those respective categories. Jacobsen project leaders were formally recognized with these honors at an awards celebration Jan. 23 at the Union Pacific Depot/Grand Hall in Salt Lake City.
Jacobsen’s Utah Valley Hospital project has earned its prestigious recognition from multiple industry groups for the way it handled the sheer difficulty of re-working an entire hospital campus while greatly minimizing disruptions to patients and caregivers. Matt Radke, who was project manager at the hospital from 2013 to 2018 and is now Vice President of Construction at Jacobsen, said the all-encompassing challenge at the site was how to go about “building a hospital on top of a hospital without disrupting a hospital.”
In addition, Jacobsen’s work at the hospital was relied on to set the bar high for other Intermountain building and renovation projects going forward.
“Intermountain explained, ‘We need to think about how we’ll deliver care beyond just this project,’” Radke said. “It really set a lot of standards for other Intermountain campuses because it was the project that was leading out.”
The $45 million Utah State Life Sciences building, a 130,000 square-foot facility completed in the spring of 2019, hosts classes for students in more than 30 majors. Its top-quality research labs, teaching spaces, and study areas, plus a 305-seat lecture hall, are just a few of its thrilling features. It replaces aging classrooms that had been around since the 1950s, making the new building a major upgrade for the campus.
STACK wins AGC developer award
In addition to its own awards, Jacobsen had the great privilege of nominating the winner of AGC’s 2019 Owner of the Year award, STACK Real Estate, in recognition of STACK’S commitment to creating high-quality development projects that help Utah’s communities grow and thrive. Jacobsen is grateful that STACK, a brilliant business partner, is being formally recognized for the ways it stands out even amid a very competitive field of developers taking Silicon Slopes to new and exciting horizons.
“I was super surprised at the nomination, we didn’t expect that,” said STACK partner and co-founder Andrew Bybee. “When (Jacobsen Project Executive) Reed Price called me and told he nominated us, and that we won — it was an honor and a privilege for sure.”
By Fall 2019, STACK had more than 330,000 square feet of Class A office space developed or put under construction at transit-oriented development (TOD) locations throughout the heart of the Silicon Slopes region of Utah, with about 650,000 additional square feet of these TOD projects in the pipeline.
“It’s been neat to be in Utah the last 13 years and trying to keep up with the pace of the technology growth — the growth of silicon Slopes,” Bybee said. “We really just try to change our way of thinking every year to get better at what we do.”