Daily Herald | Ashtyn Asay

St. John Properties Inc. is celebrating its 50th anniversary as a company, and at the half-century mark is looking to the future. A future which will include expansion in Utah County and new eco-friendly initiatives.

St. John Properties is a commercial real estate development, management and investment company. The company’s Utah office, located in Pleasant Grove, opened in 2014.

According to Daniel Thomas, St. John Properties Utah regional partner, Utah’s pro-business attitude, along with economic and population growth, is what drew the company to the state and, specifically, Utah County.

“We really like the favorable regulatory climate in Utah and the business-friendly climate, and it seems to be even better here in Utah County,” Thomas said. It’s always nice when you have partners in the municipalities that we’re working with for our growth … For the most part, Utah County and the cities and municipalities down here are very welcoming of what we do.”

In addition to Valley Grove, a 60-acre mixed-use development in Pleasant Grove, and Spring Pointe Exchange, a 17-acre development in Springville, St. John Properties has plans to keep adding mixed-use buildings within Utah County, as well as further north.

“We have 400,000 square feet of applications in for building permits right now that will all be built next year in 9 different buildings,” Thomas said. “The bulk of it will be in Utah County with portions of it in Salt Lake County, and up also in Weber County.”

The applications for building permits are for land St. John Properties already owns, but according to Thomas, the company is still looking to buy additional land in Utah County.

“We are very, very aggressively chasing more land here in Utah County for future projects,” Thomas said.

In addition to building new structures nationwide, St. John Properties is also focusing on moving forward in an innovative and eco-friendly way.

“The conservation of energy and natural resources, along with the ongoing need to develop and innovate environmentally-friendly buildings have become a priority in attracting new tenants,” Edward St. John, St. John Properties’ founder and chairman, said in a press release. “We have become the gold standard in formulating and executing a feasible and sustainable plan for green architecture and will continue evolving in the future.”

The company’s mission is to build structures with sustainable, eco-friendly materials that create more energy than they use. In order to do this, St. John Properties has put several new initiatives into place.

The company has set a goal to roll out a scalable and economic solar approach on top of all its building types, in addition to replacing lighting fixtures with energy-saving models. Additionally, St. John Properties has installed electric vehicle charging stations at all of its new multi-story office buildings. The company has installed 46 of these charging stations since 2011.