Friday, September 1st, donning cowboy hard hats, various groups including Clay Christensen, president of MTECH, the college’s board of trustees and MTECH employees turned over the ground to begin the construction of the Payson campus at Red Bridge Station.

Also attending were sponsors, partners and supporters of MTECH including Layton Construction, Utah County Commissioner Amelia Powers Gardner, state Sen. Mike McKell, Payson Mayor Bill Wright, state Rep. Doug Welton and Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson.

According to Christensen, MTECH chose to build its next campus in Payson because there is a demand of students wanting to participate in the programs it offers. He said they have also gotten immense support to bring the technical college to the city. Red Bridge developer Payson South Meadows Partners donated all of the land the campus will be built on—valued at $7 million—making it the largest known donation to a technical college in the state of Utah.

Sheila Michaelis, broker of development and sales for Red Bridge, said, “We think MTECH is just the perfect addition to the community, not only for our project, but for Payson City and for the surrounding communities, and we feel for generations to come it’s going to be a huge benefit.”

The new campus will start with one main building until three more are built. The 90,000-square-foot main building will house four programs until they are moved to the other buildings over time. The four program areas that will be offered are trades, health care, information technology and the service industry. As demand for other programs increases, 

Christensen said they will be added to the Payson campus and other branch campuses of Lehi, which is the main campus. He added that he thinks apprenticeship will be a large portion of the campus due to demand from students in the area.

The new campus is expected to help solve workforce demands in Payson and surrounding communities. According to data from JobsEQ and the Utah Department of Workforce Services presented in a press release about the groundbreaking, there are 2,100 job openings in the Payson area related to MTECH fields of study. It is also estimated that, over the next decade, the region will see 26% growth in the manufacturing sector, 46.7% in health care, 30.6% in transportation, 31.7% in construction, 35.3% in food services and 28.9% in technology.

The entire project cost is $56 million, apart from the $7 million land donation. Christensen said they also have many donations from private businesses including Norco, who provides 90% of the welding supplies used at the campuses and will provide supplies for the Payson campus and the campus in Heber City that will have a groundbreaking in the spring.
Christensen explained while the campus is a large investment, the return will greatly benefit the community. He said what he loves about their accreditation process is, “We have to maintain and exceed national rates for completion, placement and licensure,” elaborating that MTECH is required to have more than 70% of its students placed in related occupations to their program or continue in a related educational program after graduation.

The MTECH campus will anchor the exciting residential and commercial development taking place at Red Bridge. Please contact our sales team for more information on the many development opportunities at Red Bridge.

*This article reprinted with permission from the Daily Herald newspaper.

To view the full Daily Herald article, CLICK HERE

After the long awaited process of thorough design and strategic planning, we’re excited to be breaking ground for Payson’s most exciting new mixed-use community. Red Bridge Station is a unique opportunity for INVESTORS, DEVLOPERS and BUSINESSES to get in on the continued strong economic growth in Utah—particularly the Payson/Santaquin area.

Red Bridge Station is approximately 100 acres of prime development land just off of I-15 and the 800 South exit in Payson.  In the photo above, you can see an aerial view of the property from the western boundary (yellow line at bottom) facing East.

Combining residential, commercial and retail business, along with an extension campus of Mountainland Technical College, required intricate planning and an extensive approval process.

The list below highlights much of the work required to bring Red Bridge Station to life:

• $24M bond for a 3-mile sewer line, a new water well, new access roads, etc. funded through a Public Improvement District.
• A completely new zoning law had to be written to allow this kind of project.
• New architectural standards were required in coordination with the city planner for the various different sections of the project.
• Over 700 drawings were created by our architectural team including site plans, building plans, unit plans, elevations, renderings, etc.
• Other approvals and agreements included:
1. Corp of Engineers survey for the wetlands, rerouting a major stream and installing a 500-foot culvert.
2. UDOT approval for the new regional road and bridge through the middle of the project.
3. Planning Commission (PC) and City Council (CC) to convert existing farmland to a relatively high-density project required eight public meetings with approximately 20 more private meetings to complete the project.
4. 15 meetings with Mountainland Technical College (MTECH) and their architect.
5. Aquiring PC and CC approval to alter the Payson City Master Plan.
6. Numerous private meetings with the mayor, city manager, city council and their staff.
7. Authorizations by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and consultants.
8. Utah League of Cities and Towns sign-off.
9. Coordination with three power companies (PacificCorp, Payson Power and Strawberry Electric Service District).

Below is a recent flyover of Red Bridge Station. The landmark railroad bridge that the development is named after can be seen in the lower left where the railroad tracks cross.