Economic development director: seven industrial projects committed, small-business grant program draws heavy interest

David Johnson, Iron County economic development director, told commissioners at their June 2025 meeting that his office has seven industrial projects that have committed or purchased property and that the county’s small-business grant program is generating heavy demand.

Johnson said the county’s small-business grant program received "three quarters of a million dollars" in requests last year from 44 businesses; finalists asked for about $132,000 while the county budgeted roughly $65,000 for awards. He identified three past winners by name: Fire and Smoke Barbecue (opening in Cedar), Ganache Brownies and Lone Wolf Precision.

The director framed the work as a mix of proactive outreach and responses to state requests for information. "Twelve of 14" new-business site tours, he said, came from the county’s proactive efforts rather than state RFI responses. He named several active projects with limited public detail because of confidentiality agreements: Project Hive (a rotational-molding plastics manufacturer expected to bring about 30 jobs at Silver Hills), Project Bird (a food distributor planning a larger facility), Project Fabian and Project Road Candy (both advanced enough to have held site meetings), and Project AMPAC/American Pacific, which Johnson said announced a large capital expansion.

Johnson described the expanded Utah Inland Port area — which he said grew from about 900 acres to roughly 2,300 acres when Silver Hills and Linkside industrial areas were added — and said the port functions like an RDA-type incentive zone where incentives apply to newly generated revenue. He also noted collaborative outreach with BZI Innovation Park staff, the governor’s office (which provided seed funding), and regional partners; he said the county and partners traveled to a National Site Selectors Guild event to promote the area to industrial recruiters.

On logistics, Johnson highlighted RailSync, the transload operation that he said had moved 580 rail cars and removed the equivalent of long-haul truck trips from roads, and a geothermal project being developed in the region that county staff are trying to link to industrial sites for direct power supply.

Johnson also described the Iron County Economic Development Board membership and recurring grants: "Each year the governor's office gives rural counties, Iron County included, dollars — $200,000 — to help invest in economic development initiatives," he said. He said much of the 2024 allocation supported the innovation center and makerspace (SUU, Southwest Tech, SBDC and local partners) and that the SBDC received $50,000 for three years.

Asked about retail and construction trends, Johnson said gross taxable sales in the fourth quarter of 2024 rose 8% and matched Washington County’s growth; he said nonfarm jobs grew and that construction had the highest local unemployment by industry in 2024, a trend he planned to investigate.

Why it matters: Johnson characterized the results as both recruitment and retention wins that could create local short-haul driving jobs, manufacturing jobs and broader retail activity. He asked commissioners to consider touring local manufacturers with the economic development team to build retention relationships.

Evidence spans in the public meeting include Johnson’s presentation and Q&A with commissioners; his remarks lasted the bulk of the departmental reports portion of the meeting.