Two new manufacturing and engineering teachers will staff the Canyons Innovation Center next year, the first instructors hired specifically for the workforce training facility taking shape at eBay's former regional headquarters in Draper.

The Canyons Board of Education approved $201,000 for the positions during its Tuesday, Aug. 4 meeting, drawing the money from a newly adopted tax-rate increase that will generate roughly $6.9 million in annual revenue districtwide. The 7-0 vote marked only the fourth time in the district's 18-year history it has adjusted its certified rate.

The Innovation Center occupies a 36-acre campus at 583 W. eBay Way, where a 215,000-square-foot building once housed eBay employees. Canyons purchased the property for $50 million and is spending more than $47 million on renovations, funded largely by $30 million in surplus property sales and a $17.2 million Catalyst Center Implementation Grant from the Utah State Board of Education.

The facility is scheduled to open in August 2027, replacing the current Canyons Technical Education Center in Sandy. It will serve all Canyons District high school students, who can take classes there while remaining enrolled at their home schools.

Programs planned for the center include manufacturing, engineering, broadcasting, nursing, medical assisting, aviation, hospitality, information technology and skilled trades. Students will earn industry certifications and college credit while working alongside professionals on real-world projects.

The scope is ambitious.

Director Reid Newey, a veteran administrator who previously led development of Davis School District's Catalyst Center during his tenure as superintendent there, was appointed to run the facility in February 2025. In a June 2026 district profile, Newey said the center represents "an opportunity to work with industry and produce a profession-based model, which is really what the world needs right now in terms of education."

Construction of a new 35,000-square-foot Trades Building began in January 2026. In May, nearly 50 CTE students watched Hughes Construction crews perform tilt-up concrete wall construction at the site. Sam Soter, the center's business development specialist, told students at that event the facility is designed to connect classroom learning directly to professional experience.

As we reported Aug. 5, the broader tax-rate increase will cost the owner of an average $770,000 home about $27 per year. Business Administrator Leon Wilcox told the board in April that proceeds from the $17 million sale of the former Crescent View Middle School to Sandy City would also go toward Innovation Center renovations.

The district has not announced a specific opening date beyond August 2027. Interior renovations were scheduled to begin in April 2026.