At the ceremonial groundbreaking, Smith’s President Kenny Kimball said the chain’s 15th marketplace and 141st store overall will be 123,000 square feet. He promised a bigger grocery selection, clothing and outdoor gear, household goods, a flower shop, fresh sushi and scratch doughnuts inside the store.
Bryer Trussell, who manages the grocery store, said the marketplace will bring more options.
“We're going to be able to carry more variety, obviously, more holding power,” Trussell said. “It's going to be double in size [from] what our store is now.”
He said the parking lot will be three times larger.
Also, outside will be a larger fueling station with more pumps, which Kimball said is designed to accommodate the many RVs that pass through. It will also have electric vehicle charging stations.
As Utah Senate President Stuart Adams told the crowd, the store will benefit the many travelers through the area as well as locals.
“Utah is the crossroads of the West. There’s not much question about that," he said. "But Heber City, I think, is the crossroads of the Wasatch Back. When you look at Provo Canyon, it funnels right up into this area. When you look at Parleys Canyon and [Highway] 40, it comes right through here. You go to Vernal, every one of those trucks you see going out to get some oil, [or] they’re going back to the refineries. It is the crossroads.”
Heber City Mayor Heidi Franco said the store will be the second largest building in the Heber Valley.
She also thanked the Smith’s company for spending $32 million on the project and said the new store is expected to create 200 new jobs. That’s in addition to the employees at the grocery store, whom Trussell said can continue to work at the Marketplace.
City officials couldn’t say exactly the amount sales and property taxes the new store would bring in. But a staff report from the meeting in October 2022 when the city council approved the development said it’s expected to generate $250,000 more each year in sales tax.
As part of Heber City's development agreement with Smith's, the city agreed to pay $2 million to build a road and roundabout in front of the store. Developer Valley Hills, LLC and Smith's will cover the rest of the project's $11 million cost.
The new Smith’s is the first major component of an economic development project to generate tax dollars and improve the downtown area. Because it’s in the community reinvestment area the city created in 2021, much of the new tax revenue from the Smith’s will be earmarked to reinvest in the downtown area.
The city will also use some of that revenue to pay back its $2 million contribution to the road.
The development is called New London and will also include about 300 homes and 50,000 square feet of commercial space.
