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Tooele economic development director reports new openings, strong survey response and active recruitment
Summary
Economic Development Director John Perez told the council the April–June quarter included several grand openings, a small uptick in retail vacancy, two RFIs and one RFI win, and a strategic plan survey that drew 748 responses; he highlighted outreach at the ICSC convention and rising social-media reach.
John Perez, Tooele’s economic development director, presented the city’s fourth-quarter (April–June) economic development update on July 15, summarizing recent business openings, vacancy trends, lead generation and recruitment activities.
Perez listed recent grand openings — including Snellgrove Ice Cream, Electroflow, Beans and Brews and Sport Clips — and said retail vacancy rose modestly (about 0.8 percentage points) while office vacancy remained at 0% and industrial vacancy inched up, noting some undeveloped industrial land is counted in the industrial vacancy figures. He described hospitality performance as healthy: “Anything above 60% is considered healthy,” he said, noting the city’s hotels and Lake Pointe are included in those figures.
Perez described outreach at the ICSC convention in Las Vegas, where Tooele participated in a Utah retail booth, and said the city submitted two RFIs, hosted two RFI visits during the quarter, and recorded an RFI win for Electroflow earlier in FY26. He also reported a strong response to the city’s strategic-plan survey: “We had 748 responses on that survey,” Perez said, calling it a notable level of participation for a city of Tooele’s size.
The presentation included a summary of social-media performance (double- and triple-digit percentage increases in reach, interactions and impressions across platforms) and a note that some planned tenants at Hollywood Plaza had changed, with three confirmations for that center at the time of the report. Perez said more announcements are forthcoming and offered to provide councilmembers with copies of the strategic plan and additional materials.
The council did not take a vote on the update; Perez’s presentation served as an informational briefing on business attraction, property marketing and pipeline activity.
