Convergence Point breaks ground at Draper's former prison site, with the campus due in 2029

DRAPER — Utah leaders broke ground Oct. 1 on Convergence Point, an innovation campus inside The Point, the 600-acre development rising on the former site of the Utah State Prison, which moved to Salt Lake City in 2022 12.

The building is led by the Nucleus Institute and is scheduled to open in summer 2029 2. The Utah News Dispatch reported that the Legislature provided $50 million in 2022 to fund its construction 1. The Point's own news page states that lawmakers approved $36.5 million during the 2025 legislative session and recommended another $63.5 million in the 2026 budget for the complex, which it describes as a state-owned hub for investors, students, professors and government agencies with more than 200 dorm rooms 3.

Gov. Spencer Cox, speaking at the ceremony, said the site is "where a statewide idea really begins to take a physical shape," and that it will give people a place to meet, see research firsthand, work on real problems and find partners who can bring an idea to market 1. Jefferson Moss, commissioner of the Governor's Office of Economic Opportunity and former House majority leader, leads the Nucleus Institute 1. Moss said the goal is to make Utah the fastest place in the country "to be able to move ideas from discovery to impact" 1. Angela Smith, the institute's chief operating officer, said the work could take on housing affordability, water and air issues and emerging technologies 1.

The Nucleus Institute was created under H.B. 530 and launched in August 2025 as a reorganization of the former Utah Innovation Lab, bringing the state's innovation programs under a single governance structure, according to Utah Business, which also reported that the institute's $40 million Nucleus Fund anchors the campus 2. The fund, previously the Utah Innovation Fund, recycles returns into new deep-technology investments rather than winding down after a fixed term 2. The facility will house the fund alongside the institute's MarketEdge, Nucleus Grow, ProLab and PolicyLab programs, with co-development space tied to federal and defense technology work anchored by Hill Air Force Base 2.

Utah Business reported that Convergence Point is the hub of the Utah Convergence Corridor, a network meant to connect research, talent, companies and investment from Logan to St. George and to draw on all 16 of Utah's public colleges and universities 2. The building itself changed names between its May unveiling and the groundbreaking, from Convergence Hall to Convergence Point 2.

The news release describing the center says it will offer classrooms, coworking spaces, offices for universities and dormitories for students coming from across the state, with the Utah System of Higher Education coordinating the institute's work when the center opens 1. Research is expected to remain on university campuses, with the center giving businesses and the public a place to see that work, meet the people behind it and explore how to use it 1. Geoffrey Landward, the commissioner of higher education, said the state will gather stakeholders' ideas, research, imagination and resources "in close quarters" and let them collide, adding that the outcome cannot be fully predicted 1.

The Point's phase one covers approximately 100 acres, about one sixth of the site 4. Its published plans describe The Promenade, a main street with more than 2 million square feet of office space, approximately 3,000 multi-family housing units and 222,000 square feet of retail, restaurants and grocery space, along with a Central Green park and an "Innovation Alley" for the site's innovation district 4. Infrastructure work in the phase extends Porter Rockwell Boulevard and planned transit service through the site and builds most of a 1.4-mile paved regional trail called River to Range that is meant to connect the Jordan River Parkway Trail to Draper's Corner Canyon foothills 34.

The Point's own news page describes the 600-acre, state-owned site as "one of the most important quality-of-life opportunities in Utah history" 3. That page collects outside coverage describing a buildout of at least 15 years, with the state owning the land and guiding construction of housing, a rail station and trail connections 3.

Construction on Convergence Point is expected to run roughly three years 2. The Point of the Mountain State Land Authority's next board meeting is scheduled for Nov. 12, 2026 4.

Sources: 1 Utah News Dispatch, "Construction of new innovation hub starts at former prison site in Draper," Oct. 1, 2026 https://utahnewsdispatch.com/2026/10/01/construction-of-new-innovation-hub-starts-at-former-prison-site-in-draper/ 2 Utah Business, "Utah leaders break ground on Convergence Point in Draper," Oct. 1, 2026 https://www.utahbusiness.com/building-development/2026/10/01/utah-leaders-break-ground-on-convergence-point-in-draper/ 3 The Point (Point of the Mountain State Land Authority), news page https://thepointutah.org/the-point-news 4 The Point, Phase 1 Development Plan https://thepointutah.org/phase-1-development-plan