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WEST VALLEY CITY — The sights and sounds of construction and development are part of West Valley City's new and improved image these days. Residents like the new community atmosphere, and city leaders are proud they kept the engines of progress purring in spite of a tough economy.
On a Thursday evening at Fairbourne Station, one can hear the sounds of food truck vendors greeting customers and taking orders. Daniel Roberts, owner of Sandy-based Papa Doug's Dogs, has been parking his food truck here every Thursday evening since last September.
"It just provides a fun atmosphere," Roberts said. "I mean, the families can come."
Families, commuters and residents of the nearby apartments are coming to eat and have good conversation at West Valley's new gathering place.
"We've seen a real renaissance here in the city," said assistant city manager Nicole Cottle. "As you see, what we've created here is a city center, a gathering place for our community."
Fairbourne Station is at the center of West Valley's rebirth. It's where housing, transportation, retail and dining intersect to give life to an area that was dying a decade ago.
"It was an area in real decline and through the work of our redevelopment agency, we've been able to come through and purchase property and turn it around," said West Valley City Councilor Steve Vincent.
Turning the area around involved redeveloping the old Valley Fair Mall, and it looked like it wouldn't happen when the recession hit in 2008.
We've seen a real renaissance here in the city. ... what we've created here is a city center, a gathering place for our community.
–Nicole Cottle, assistant WVC manager
"The recession really threw a wrench in that whole thing, and we had to turn onto our heads, redo that whole deal and make it work from a financial standpoint to continue on," said Wayne Pyle, West Valley's city manager.
The project got a $7 million shot in the arm from city redevelopment funds in 2009. And then there were the countless hours of negotiations to condemn and buy up property from private owners.
"This effort has not been without a lot of heavy lifting," Cottle said.
City leaders believe it was that extra muscle and money invested in the area that eventually paid off.
"It's resulted in a million square feet of retail that is thriving," said Cottle.
Mall traffic has increased almost 75 percent between 2009 and 2014 — from 3 million to more than 5 million visitors per year. Retailers say their sales are also up by as much as 46 percent over the same period.
Pyle said city revenues are increasing because he and other city leaders "pay attention to our partners and our business owners out there."
It's beautiful now. It's gorgeous. I think it's grown so much by leaps and bounds and I'm so glad they did all of this.
–Louisa Te'O, WVC resident
By "out there," Pyle means in formerly undeveloped corners of West Valley City, like the area to the north and west of downtown. Off 5600 West and 3100 South, hundreds of new homes are under construction in the Highbury developments and a 3-million-square-foot industrial park is going up to support a new type of business.
"We have the ability, and sort of recognize the ability, to grasp onto this new e-commerce," Cottle said.
It is about grabbing onto the "new" but also holding fast to what West Valley City already has.
"Our first and our foremost concern needs to be our own community. Our population, our residents," Pyle said.
People like Luisa Te'O, a longtime West Valley City resident who just moved into the Fairbourne Station apartments last fall.
"It's beautiful now. It's gorgeous," Te'O said. "I think it's grown so much by leaps and bounds and I'm so glad they did all of this."
Roberts of Papa Doug's Dogs agrees. "I think West Valley's really embracing just this family culture," he said.
It's a culture West Valley City has been cultivating for almost four decades. Now, there are places to gather and to celebrate community:
"It is a feeling of community that we get every single time we come out (to Fairbourne Station)," Te'O said.
