An Ailing Provo Turns 'The Swamp' Into a Field of Dreams : A daring new industrial park built totally on speculation resuscitates the Utah town.

By RON HARRIS

Nov. 20, 1991 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

PROVO, Utah — It sat, ugly, on the south end of town, Jim Ferguson’s personal field of dreams: an aging city-owned golf course and a nasty stretch of vacant land, complete with landfill, that residents called “The Swamp.”

Where others saw only Russian olive and cottonwood sprouting from worthless marsh, Ferguson, then Provo’s mayor, envisioned a bustling commercial center populated by clean, high-tech industry, a major shopping area, a spiffy new public golf course and maybe even a park.

It was a vision driven largely by the harsh economic realities that plague scores of small towns throughout the West and that have driven some to such dubious ventures as low-stakes gambling to bolster faltering economies.

Provo’s downtown had dwindled to nothing, its business siphoned off by a shopping mall to the north in nearby Orem. The town’s second largest employer, Geneva Steel, had laid off hundreds of workers during the industrywide downturn of the late 1970s. With no jobs and no money available, people and businesses had begun to pack up and leave town.

Thus, in 1978, Ferguson took his dream to those most likely to make it a reality, armed with a maxim now made famous by “Field of Dreams”--a movie that had not even been contemplated then.

If you build it, Ferguson told developers as he offered up the 400-acre eyesore for bids, they will come.

Thanks, but no thanks, came the responses. Too risky, too many problems. One Salt Lake City firm did show interest and invested development funds, but, burdened with other projects, pulled out.

So Ferguson and Provo did something that runs counter to every fiber in this conservative, staunchly Republican town: Government embarked on private enterprise. Using $6 million in federal funds from programs developed mostly by Democrats, and an additional $20 million from land sales, the city went out to build its own commercial center.

The result was the East Bay Assn., a city-owned and government-operated industrial park that has revitalized the city’s economy, creating thousands of jobs, millions of dollars in tax revenue and placed Provo at the top of the list of most livable cities in the nation.

“It was the biggest crap shoot this city was going to take in 100 years,” said Albert Kanahele, project manager for East Bay. “But it paid off.”

City officials estimate now that the 24 businesses inside the park and the 20 firms that have sprung up around it have created 8,000 new jobs. The city’s retail sales have more than doubled since the 1985 groundbreaking to $590 million last year. The park has added $6 million in new tax revenue to the city’s coffers, one third of the entire budget. Best of all, the population grew by 18% to 87,000. A national magazine recently hailed Provo as the most livable city in America.

The industrial park is anchored by Novell, the leading manufacturer of computer networking software and the park’s first tenant, and NuSkin, a skin care products company. The two half-billion-dollar firms were started less than eight years ago by students from nearby Brigham Young University.

It was Novell that first brought the park legitimacy and piqued the interest of other companies. In addition, Novell grew so quickly that it steadily gobbled up acreage, easing city concerns over selling off the lots.

The commercial side of the development is anchored by Price Savers, a discount outlet that grossed $50 million last year. The old golf course has been replaced with a new 27-hole facility, complete with clubhouse. The landfill is being made ready for a park.

Downtown Revitalized Too

Things have gone so well that another 200 acres of development is under way in East Bay, and three new privately held industrial parks--Aerospace, Ironton and Riverwoods--have sprouted.

“We don’t have to go out and do them ourselves any more,” said Brent Drew, the city’s economic development technician. “That’s a big help.”

Money from East Bay has also helped the city revitalize downtown, starting with an 11-story NuSkin office building.

But while Provo officials are basking in the glow of the park’s success, they readily admit that the project could have easily gone sour or actually not taken place at all.

“If Novell didn’t move in, and then become such a big success, we wouldn’t be sitting here now talking about this,” said Mark Pace, project manager for Boyer Construction, which now owns five acres in the park and built the structures that house Novell and NuSkin.

“That’s true,” said Gary Golightly, head of the town’s Economic Development Office. “I think we would have been a success, but it would have been a whole lot slower.”

And if those federal funds had not been available, East Bay might still just be Joe Ferguson’s dream.

When construction firms came in to take a look at the prospect of funneling millions of dollars into land with the hope that industry would relocate there, Provo did not look like a very appealing site. Its asset: Brigham Young University; it’s liabilities: no major airport, no thriving industry, only one major highway and a dwindling population.

In addition, major construction obstacles loomed. There were flood control problems, land reclamation problems and wetland concerns, each accompanied by a labyrinth of federal and state government red tape.

“It was an extremely risky venture,” said Pace. “You’re talking about land speculation, and as you can see, most of the land speculators are out of business.”

Only one firm, Triad, a Salt Lake City contractor, took a stab, sinking $50,000 into development plans before eventually pulling out. But as Triad executives handed over the plans to the city, they made a striking suggestion.

“They said we should take it back and try to do it ourself,” Ferguson recalled.

But with what? If the city had forgone all other city services and spent every dime in the budget on the project, it still would have fallen short.

“But we knew we had to do something,” Ferguson said. “We were a city on the verge of losing it all, or we were going to make things happen.”

Before Federal Cutbacks

Fortunately for Provo, the federal cutbacks for such programs that were to come under the Ronald Reagan Administration were still in the future. It was near the end of President Jimmy Carter’s term and government funds for such projects were still available.

They city received a $1.5-million grant from the Economic Development Administration. Another $1 million in revenue sharing funds was applied to the project. Provo secured another $3.5 million in federal loans guaranteed against Department of Commerce Community Development Block Grant funds. Aside from support services from city engineers and other city personnel, Provo put up very little money.

Still, many residents didn’t approve, including Joseph Jenkins, whose argument against it helped him defeat Ferguson for mayor in 1986.

“I thought government shouldn’t be in the development business,” said Jenkins, who became the man largely responsible for bringing the project to fruition. “Philosophically, I still feel that way.”

These days, one’s philosophy would not matter, Provo officials said. Duplicating such a project would be difficult.

“There’s just not the federal dollars there,” Golightly said. “The programs have either been cut out, cut back or the restrictions are so tough that it’s hard to get the money. I don’t think you could do it now. We’re lucky that we got in when we did.”