161-Acre Project Prompts LNR Expansion

SALT LAKE CITY-With a 3.5-million-sf business park under development here, LNR Property Corp.’s commercial property group has hired the former economic development manager of Draper City to oversee the project. Working out of LNR’s new Salt Lake City office in Cotonwood Corporate Center, David Baird will oversee the build-out of the 161-acre Bangerter Crossing Business Park and help expand the company’s activities in the market.

The first two structures at the park, a pair of distribution buildings totaling 400,000 sf, are under construction and several tenant lease proposals are in negotiation, according to LNR. Later this year, Baird will oversee the construction of a third building totaling 325,000 sf and also will begin planning the next three phases of the project. Overall completion is slated for 2013.

With Draper City, Baird was responsible for the recruitment of the state’s only IKEA store. He also was one of the founding partners of the Draper Community Development Corporation, a private non-profit aimed at creating business and development vitality in the city.

Baird tells GlobeSt.com he was a commercial developer before going to Draper City. “I felt it was a better strategic move for my career to work with LNR,” he says.

LNR Commercial property Group, based in Newport Beach, CA, is the real estate investment and development division of Miami-based LNR Property Corp. LNR Property Corp. regional president Ric Kern says he expects Baird to use his decade of experience in the local market to increase the company’s presence in the in the Intermountain West.

“We intend to enter the market with other large scale commercial projects,” Baird says.