Higher Ed Utah

(SL Tribune) – No Utah campus needs added space as badly as Utah Valley University, where enrollment is soaring and open space is being displaced by parking lots and new construction.

And UVU is gambling that a massive mixed-use development proposed for the former Geneva Steel mill in nearby Vineyard, population 150, could rescue the crowded Orem school.

But the $5 million deal on a 100-acre future satellite campus, approved in June by UVU trustees, depends on multiple contingencies, including a matching payment from the town of Vineyard and buy-in from other stakeholders on a costly “urban renewal” plan for the larger 1,750-acre Geneva property, much of it contaminated by 60 years of industrial activity.

Another question is the 100-acre UVU parcel’s $20 million appraisal, which signifies a breath-taking leap in value during the worst real estate market in memory.

Read the entire article at sltrib.com.