Business View Magazine - Dec 2023

friendly communities. No wonder its nickname is “Happy Valley.” With a population of 705,000, Utah Valley is also home to many prominent technology companies and start-ups. In fact, the area surrounding Lehi, one of its cities, is often referred to as “Silicon Slopes,” in recognition of its importance to Utah’s technology ecosystem and its similarity to California’s Silicon Valley – both powerful economic engines in their respective locales. The Utah Valley has grown considerably over the past two decades, almost doubling its population since 2000. So the need for all levels of housing is constant, and because there’s also a high-net-worth population tied to the tech industry, the market for large, high-end, expensive homes is equally robust. “Utah is growing,” says Casey Cloward, who founded Raykon Construction in 2008. “And there’s a high demand for construction. We’ve been a beneficiary of the growth and we welcome it. We build homes in the area of 8,000-15,000 square feet, with a price point of $3-8 million. A lot of our homes have indoor sports courts within the structures, which is a nice value-add for our clients. A lot of them might have indoor theaters, golf simulators, large kitchens, etc. Most of our homes have pools. That’s our niche market.” THE COMPANY I S FOUNDED A third-generation general contractor, Cloward began his career in finish carpentry and fine cabinetry. “Woodworking was a passion of mine,” he relates. After graduating in 2006 from nearby Brigham Young University with a BS in Construction Management,hewent towork for a productionhome builder, where he says that the entire construction process was very transactional. “The homebuyer comes into the sales room, we take the order, and we build the home without any interaction with the client,” he recounts. From the outset, Cloward determined that Raykon would follow a different business model altogether. “It would always be a customized experience with the homeowner involved,” he states. “They assist and add their opinions and values; they are given a lot of autonomy regarding their decisions as they 53 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 10, ISSUE 12 RAYKON CONSTRUCT ION