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Daily Herald
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CATHY ALLRED - North County Staff

Lehi City may get a 200,000 sq. ft. exhibition conference center if a feasibility study is approved and its results show county commissioners north Utah County is the place to build.

The mayor and council opted Sept. 26 to support Lehi as a site for a center, contingent on receiving matching funds for an approximately $60,000 feasibility study from Thanksgiving Point.

Thanksgiving Point executives haven't agreed to their $15,000 share for the study as yet, even though they are the ones who pitched the idea to the Lehi City Council and again to the Utah County Commission.

Mike Washburn, Thanksgiving Point CEO, said the soonest the Thanksgiving board members could gather to discuss Lehi's counter-proposal on study funding would be some time this week. He was able to present his idea to the Utah County Commissioners the week of Sept. 18.

"They talked with us about considering it," Larry Ellertson, Utah County Commissioner, said in a phone interview. "We haven't taken action on it yet, it's not official ... We probably will have some additional discussion on it."

At least two other municipalities, Pleasant Grove and Provo have announced plans to build a center.

Provo has presented a proposal for a $32 million 80,000 sq. ft. facility near the Marriott Hotel on Freedom Boulevard and 100 North.

Pleasant Grove announced its intentions in building a 100,000 sq. ft. convention center with plans for an Embassy Suites and Hotels complex near the Pleasant Grove/Lindon I-15 interchange.

"We've got three or four of them that are all interested in having studies on them," Ellertson said. "My hope would be we could have the discussion on it over the next month and find out where we are headed."

There is additionally a proposal for expanding the McKay Events Center at UVSC in Orem, he said, so the commissioners will have that option to consider as well.

"I think they are very cautious," Mike Washburn, Thanksgiving Point CEO, said of the commissioners on Sept. 29. "My feeling is they are receptive about exploring other options."

Washburn spoke with Jamie Davidson, Lehi City administrator, a few days earlier about the council's decision.

"The important point is to look countywide for the best location for a convention center," Washburn said. He said he thought locating in north Lehi would take advantage of business from both Utah and Salt Lake Counties.

On Thanksgiving Point property by Electric Park and the Mountainland Applied Technology College campus property, the proposed project would be half the size of the South Town Expo Center but larger than the one Provo leaders are proposing for their city.

"We have resurrected the idea - obviously Provo thinks it should be in Provo but I think the county should have options," Washburn said in his presentation to Lehi Sept. 12.

The center would generate tax revenue for the host city and county and would be built with hotel tax funds.

Washburn said the center would penetrate markets in Provo, Orem and Salt Lake City. He hopes to have the center considered for mult-use, concerts, rodeos and other activities as well as business conventions; and has chosen LMN Architects and Inc., designers of the Exposition Center in Sandy, for the project.

"South Town Expo Center is the second busiest in North America," Davidson, said, adding that their business could spill over to the suggested Lehi center. Washburn said if such a project were announced, more hotel and restaurant plans would likely follow.

"Assuming the Utah County fair remains at Thanksgiving Point that could be a welcome addition to that," Councilman Johnny Barnes said. "I think it's something we definitely ought to look at."

The study would review the economic, demographic and real estate development trends for Utah and Utah County and present an economic and fiscal impact analysis.