Utah State University campus coming to Murray

Murray, Utah - Utah State University has officially approved Murray as the location of their new Salt Lake Regional Campus. 

“This will start the dominoes falling for our downtown development,” Mayor Eyre said, announcing the news at the Oct. 4 meeting of the Murray City Council. The Mayor expressed his excitement at being able to finally make the news public. The project just completed a lengthy approval process with the USU Board of Trustees and Utah State Board of Regents. 

Currently the University’s Salt Lake Regional Campus is housed within the old Granite School District campus. But with the end of their lease around the corner, Utah State University has been looking for a permanent home for this facility. 

“We’ve been working with [USU] for around eight-10 months, talking through this,” said Tim Tingey, director of the Redevelopment Agency of Murray. 

The proximity of this location to TRAX and FrontRunner stations was a big draw and is designed to serve commuter students across the Salt Lake Valley.

USU has regional campuses throughout Utah, offering students many of the same services they would receive attending the main campus in Logan. Students can earn their degrees through a mix of online and classroom courses.

The proposed Salt Lake Regional Campus will be a 25,000-square-foot, multilevel building located on 4800 South and State Street. USU will be the building’s primary occupant, but will share the space with other tenants. The building will include space for retail stores or other commercial enterprises on upper levels. The bottom floor will be left open for a larger tenant, possibly a banking institution.

The developer for this project is JR Miller Enterprises, who have an exclusive contract with the City for development within the Central Business District. Tim Tingey said the City is still going through the final approval process with the developer and USU. However, he hoped that they would break ground “within the next few months.” But there are still a few more things that need to happen.

JR Miller still needs to present a development agreement to the City. This will include costs and the look and feel of the building. The land on which the building will sit is currently owned by the Redevelopment Agency of Murray. Should the city approve the agreement, a public meeting process will begin for the sale of the property. 

After that point, construction can finally start. Tingey said he hoped it would be completed around January 2018. 

 “We’ve got a little work left to do but we’re excited,” Tingey said. Regardless, securing the anchor tenant was a major step for the developer. 

The school fits in with Murray’s vision for the Central Business District, and the broader aims of the General Plan. 

Another aspect of the plan for this area is a proposed parking structure. The structure would serve this building as one of its tenants, but would serve other businesses in the downtown area as well.

“We’re going to look at building the parking structure to facilitate parking for some of this building and additional business and economic activity,” Tingey said.