City Creek Harmons Store to Produce More Jobs Downtown

The final groundbreaking for downtown's City Creek project was yesterday, July 8, for City Creek's downtwon grocery store, Harmons.

"It's an exciting day to note that this is the concluding groundbreaking," said H. David Burton, Presiding Bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is developing the City Creek Project for Salt Lake City.

The groundbreaking for Harmons' fifteenth store is the beginning of the 50,000 plus square foot construction project that will finish during the fall of 2011.

"We've been searching for trends in grocery stores since the announcement four years ago," said Bob Harmon, Vice President and Co-owner of Harmons, at the groundbreaking ceremony. "Our store will be different looking from the traditional Harmons store. Because we're in the heart of downtown and surface parking is limited, Harmons will create customer parking above the store like grocers have done in San Francisco and Los Angeles. And, instead of Harmons' familiar solid brick design, the City Creek store will have expanisve glass exteriors, to be in line with downtown ordinances."

The City Creek store will employ approximately 250 associates, according to Harmon, drawing from employees at other stores throughout Utah as well as new hires.

In 2009, Harmons reportedly invested more than $63 million in its associates through wages, salaries, benefits and training.

"Our real difference is our people," said Harmon, "We feel we have the finest associates in the state."

According to the Salt Lake Chamber, more than $5 billion will be spent on downtown construction projects between 2005 and 2012, creating jobs for more than 1,000 construction workers and providing an average of $1.6 million into Salt Lake City's economy every day.

"There is a lot of excitement downtown with the 'downtown rising' movement," said Marty Carpenter, Salt Lake Chamber Spokesperson, "Building the Harmons downtown is the next step [in the City Creek project]. Three times a day, people are going to want to eat."

Among those in attendance at the ceremony included Bob Harmon's brother, Randy, who operated the gold-painted track hoe to officially break ground on the new store. Others in attendance included Natalie Gochnour, chief economist for the Salt Lake Chamber; Salt Lake City's Mayor, Ralph Becker; and the Harmon brothers' mother, Doreen Harmon.

The City Creek store will include an Italian gelato stand, gourmet cheese island, salad and olive bars, a pizza oven and a cooking school. The mezzanine level of the store will include a seating area with a fireplace, couches, tables and chairs, and Wi-Fi access.

Construction and design teams consist of Okland Construction; Skidmore; Owings and Merrill, LLC; Prescott Muir Architects; City Creek Reserve, Inc; MHTN Architects; Spectrum Engineers and Professional Engineering Services.