Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall has launched an economic development initiative designed to make Utah’s capital city a premiere health care innovation hub.
The Tech Lake City concept focuses on bringing more businesses from the life sciences and medical tech fields, including pharmaceutical and medical device companies and research, testing and medical laboratories, to Salt Lake City.
But the initiative goes further than that.
“This is not solely an economic development strategy,” Mendenhall said in a written statement to Utah Political Underground. “Salt Lake City’s emphasis on healthcare innovation and life sciences will also serve the public good, helping Salt Lake City residents have access to world class innovations and jobs that will also benefit public health globally.”
In February, the mayor unveiled “A Blueprint for Growing Salt Lake City’s Health Care Economy,” a plan to create a thriving innovation hub and improve pathways to tech education and employment for all residents, particularly those in underserved communities. Public-private partnerships will help drive the effort, according to the report.
“The first phase of our Tech Lake City initiative is to focus on this industry – Health Care Innovation that incorporates life sciences, med tech, and digital health; an industry that has multiple access points for careers whether you have a high school diploma, a lab tech certificate, or an advanced degree,” Mendenhall said. “We have an engine creating new technologies and companies at the University of Utah, it is resilient and weathers recessions better than any other industry, has high wages that allow for upward mobility and better quality of life.”
“This is not solely an economic development strategy.”
Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall
An unofficial Innovation Corridor already is taking shape from the Northgate Business Park in the Marmalade neighborhood down through The Gateway and the Depot District and then to the Granary District. The city is working to create a multidimensional neighborhood centered around innovation at Station Center that would connect the Intermodal Hub and the Rio Grande building and its surroundings.
The initiative’s economic development approach was developed by the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah (gardner.utah.edu). An advisory group of members from the community, business, academia and government are assisting with the effort. The work began in January 2020.
Clark Cahoon, technology and innovation advisor in the city’s Department of Economic Development, manages the initiative, which is overseen by department director Ben Kolendar.
Making a pivot to a non-traditional approach
The report describes Tech Lake City as a pivot to a more-proactive, non-traditional approach that focuses on strengthening key sectors, starting with health care innovation. As an example, the city secured investment to create BioHive (biohive.com), a collective of more than 1,100 Utah companies that include laboratory facilities, healthcare delivery systems, digital health, health IT and supply chain businesses that support these industries.
(The health care innovation industry does not include doctor-patient care.)
Mendenhall is on the board of the public-private agency, which is making the case for businesses to locate in Salt Lake City. Cahoon said BioHive is helping to shape the Tech Lake City’s message.
“We want the jobs of the future to have a home in the city.”
Clark Cahoon, Salt Lake City technology and innovation advisor
“One of the things we recognized was we needed to tell the story on what’s going on within this industry because it’s fast growing, it’s recession-proof, we’ve got that engine from the University of Utah not only creating graduates that are educated in that space but also companies that are commercializing technologies and growing,” Cahoon said.
When she unveiled the economic development strategy on Feb. 22, Mendenhall also announced Recursion (recursion.com), a clinical-stage biotechnology company, is going to more than double its downtown footprint and Denali Therapeutics plans to open offices and manufacturing space nearby.
Recursion, a founding member of BioHive, is adding nearly 100,000 square feet of space to its headquarters at The Gateway and 50,000 square feet of manufacturing space at INDUSTRY SLC, in the Granary District at 650 S. 500 West.
“We are excited to bring our work to the beautiful and vibrant state of Utah.”
Denali Therapeutics CEO Ryan Watts
Denali, a biopharmaceutical company headquartered in the San Francisco Bay area, will have approximately 65,000 square feet of office and manufacturing space adjacent to Recursion at INDUSTRY.
“We are excited to bring our work to the beautiful and vibrant state of Utah with the construction of our new, state-of-the-art biologics clinical manufacturing facility,” Denali CEO Ryan Watts said in a news release. “Salt Lake City also broadens Denali’s access to local talent and expertise in the life sciences.”
Historic and current success
Salt Lake City has a legacy of health care innovation.
The University of Utah Hospital was the site of the first operation that successfully implanted an artificial heart in a human. The recipient, retired dentist Barney, lived 112 days with the device in his chest.
In addition, the U. is home to the Utah Population Database, the world’s largest repository for genetics, epidemiology, demography and public health data, and to ARUP Laboratories, a nonprofit diagnostic lab.
The first hospital information system to integrate patient data was developed in Utah and led to worldwide adoption of electronic medical records.
The report also lists a slew of statistics that show the strength of the health care innovation industry in Salt Lake City and Utah.
The Salt Lake area is second in the nation for medical device concentration and Utah is one of only four stated with concentrations in multiple health care innovation sectors, including pharmaceuticals, medical devices and research, testing and medical laboratories.
In addition, Utah was second in the nation for annual life sciences employment between 2012 and 2020; sixth per capita in life sciences investment; and first in concentration of life sciences jobs at twice the national average.
“We have a unique opportunity to take the momentum of our economy and more specifically a booming life sciences industry that has emerged as an anchor in our city,” Mendenhall said.
The report recommends using four “pillars” to create a foundation for a strong and sustainable health care innovation industry.
Brand, promote and grow
To brand Salt Lake City as a top location for companies, the city should highlight its successes and increase awareness of job opportunities, the report says. The city is working with BioHive; BioUtah, a trade association for the state’s life sciences industry; and the University of Utah, which is a Tier 1 research institution, among others, to share stories of its talent base and attend and sponsor events inside and outside of the state.
Another recommendation is to create a grassroots outreach campaign to raise awareness in underserved communities about potential career pathways and to showcase successful role models with the help of Salt Lake City School District and local nonprofit organizations.
“The real focus of that is once we have that awareness better within our own backyard here within the city and the state, we want to help underserved communities specifically see themselves within the jobs that that industry provides because it’s recession-proof, because it has high wages and because it’s growing really quickly here within the city,” Cahoon said.
Increase investment
The report says the city should work closely with economic development agencies at the state and local levels, organizations such as BioUtah and BioHive, banks, industrial loan corporations and other financial institutions to increase public and private funding for its innovation ecosystem.
“In addition, convening an ongoing advisory group of local, national, and global funders with industry expertise can help Salt Lake City officials understand funding structures and opportunities, brainstorm and strategize funding approaches, and seek advice on economic development efforts,” the report says.
The report notes Salt Lake City is investigating novel opportunities, including directing public investment into community-based program to increase economic mobility, especially on the west side, “which historically has been redlined, marginalized, and underserved.” The two areas of focus are early childhood development and workforce interventions and both cand be integrated with the city approach to focusing economic development in the health care innovation industry, the report says.
Emphasize pathways and partnerships
This pillar emphasizes that available, accessible and affordable education and training opportunities are imperative to supply a sustainable workforce for the health care innovation economy. Tapping into existing programs and creating education-to-workforce partnerships will help meet the community’s needs, the report says.
A survey of businesses in the industry would identify positions that typically require higher education or certification and the results could motivate companies to create alternative pathways to those jobs including apprenticeships, internships and skills tests, the report says.
The state already has programs that provide STEM education and different pathways to jobs in the health care industry. Career and Technical Education (CTE) career clusters prepare Utah high school students for their first job after graduation or more education and training.
Post-secondary options in the health science career cluster include earning a one-year certificate to become, a two-year associate’s degree or a bachelor’s degree. The training opens pathways for graduates to work as a clinical lab technician, a medical assistant, a registered nurse, a forensic science technician or a microbiologist depending on the level of education.
The Salt Lake City School District’s pathways to the health care industry include CTE and concurrent enrollment, which lets students earn college credit for courses taken during high school. The classes can be taught at the high school or a local college.
James Yapias, director of the Salt Lake Education Foundation, said the nonprofit collaborates with organizations and companies to provide career-focused opportunities to students who are going into the healthcare industry. The foundation works with the Salt Lake City district to help ensure that students graduate from high school ready for college and careers and uses private donations to supplement their educational experiences.
“What’s really important to us is that we provide opportunities for students as it relates to workplace learning,” Yapias said. “I think that’s critical because we have to be able to create these pathways.”
Strengthen foundation and remove barriers
Streamlined regulations and up-to-date information can help businesses flourish, the report says.
Collecting citywide data on the industry’s workforce development needs, job growth and wage growth will provide a baseline measurement and the ability to set strategic goals, the report says. In addition, identifying and tracking a handful of key metrics will show how well economic development and social mobility objectives are being met over time.
Other recommended actions are reducing business barriers by determining which city regulations and zoning laws might be impeding the building of a thriving industry and ensuring the availability of space for the companies, with a focus on the Innovation Corridor.
As the report was coming together, Salt Lake City was already reviewing its land use regulations and updating definitions to make them clearer for companies looking for space. The changes allowed the city to be more strategic about where those businesses set up, Cahoon said.
Also on the list of suggested actions is an inventory of current and planned research and development activities by colleges and universities, health care providers, nonprofit organizations, and private companies. An analysis would identify gaps and potential opportunities, such as promising but unrealized patents, the report says.
“We want the jobs of the future to have a home in the city,” Cahoon said. “We recognize the opportunity to have people live and work and recreate, enjoy what downtown has to offer, enjoy what the Capital City has to offer. We’re making a really strong case to see that those jobs come and stay put in the city.”
