Members and leaders of Impact Hub Salt Lake celebrated the completion their permanent home in Salt Lake City Thursday.The building at 150 South State Street is nation’s newest Impact Hub. It’s designed to be an incubator for social enterprises and entrepreneurs focusing on their collective impact rather than profit. Salt Lake’s Impact Hub is part of a global network of more than 75 on 5 continents. Soren Simonsen is the Co-founder and President of the Salt Lake operation.
“We’ve already got quite a few folks working out of the place. We’ve got probably a hundred members or more to date and new members signing up on a daily basis,” says Simonsen.
Officials from The Salt Lake Chamber, Downtown Alliance and the Lt. Governor’s Office were on hand for the ribbon cutting. Simonsen says the 14-month renovation of the historic building has been well worth the effort.
“About 15,000 square feet and a very warm, inviting, authentic kind of place. A lot of people say it kind of feels like home,” says Simonsen, “like a home office but on a big scale. And so we like the vibe that we have created.”
Simonsen says the University of Utah’s future Lassonde Studios and other similar projects at BYU, Westminster College, and Utah State, are enhancing their operation. He says students need a place for transitioning from campus to the business community and Impact Hub Salt Lake is one of those places.
