The Ivory Foundation held a ribbon cutting ceremony on May 28 to celebrate the opening of their new Innovation Park, which is a 239-unit community in Lehi. The townhomes are being offered at the median income level (AMI).
“I think a lot of young people are thinking, oh my gosh, things aren’t going to work out for me, everything’s more expensive, jobs are harder to come by,” Clark Ivory of the Ivory Foundation said.
In addition, the foundation opened the Rippy Literacy Center, which provides reading and math classes for K-4 students in Lehi at no cost.
“Yes, it’s gotten much more expensive,” Governor Spencer Cox said at the event. “That’s a good sign in that it means we’re doing something right. People want to live here, people want to raise their families here, and that demand is always going to increase the price of housing. And so the only answer is to build more supply.”
Affordable Housing
The project, which costs over $72m, seeks to provide affordable housing at a time when home prices are rising. “We had a median home price of $243,000, which was really close to what the national median home price was.” Ivory said to the crowd of prices in 2006 before the housing crisis. “[Utah has] had a 122% increase in median home price [since then] bringing us to $541,000, while the United States has had a 72.5% increase in the median price of a house.”
The units are being offered just below market value in order to attract more growth in Lehi. “The median rent [in Lehi] is probably over $2,000, maybe a little higher than that,” Paul Binns, the mayor of Lehi. “The average price of a house here is $550,000 to $600,000.”
Ivory Innovations has 7 more sites planned with units AMI qualifications, including in Draper and Magna. “We partnered with Guerdon out of Boise… to help us build what will be the biggest factory built modular project in Utah ever,” Ivory said to the Chronicle.
“The old farms and hay fields are gone,” Binns said. “You’ll continue to see large innovations with business at the Silicon Slopes… You have data centers that are going into your mountain. What’s going on here is very innovative and moving very fast.”
Reading
Just before the ribbon was cut, First Lady of Utah Abby Cox, spoke on the importance of teaching literacy to children and the Rippy Literacy Center. “I have been so blessed to have that legacy in my life of women who value education… We have to pick up a book… What’s important is there’s going to be moms and dads that just don’t have 15 or 20 minutes in the day, but there are going to be volunteers here that can help.”
Early literacy rates place 46.5% of elementary students reading at or above grade level, according to the Utah State Board of Education.
“I’m interviewing for Supreme Court justices right now, and my favorite question to ask is, what are you reading right now?” Cox said. “I’m asking all of you in this crowd to be thinking about what you are reading right now, and if the answer is nothing, you’re doing it wrong.”
