What is The Point in Draper, Utah?

The Point is the redevelopment of the land the Utah State Prison used to sit on, at the north end of Draper where the valley narrows toward Lehi. The state broke ground on the first phase in June 2026, and the plan is a roughly $2.3 billion district on about 600 acres, with a first phase that includes an event center, a multifamily building and a walkable main street (Salt Lake Tribune, July 16, 2026; KSL).

That is the whole answer. The rest of this post is about the part buyers actually need, which is the difference between what exists and what is drawn.

Why the site exists at all

Draper had a prison in it for decades. When the prison moved, what was left was one of the largest pieces of undeveloped, publicly owned, freeway-adjacent land anywhere in the Salt Lake Valley — and it sits at the point where I-15 crosses from Salt Lake County into Utah County. That location is the entire reason the state is doing something ambitious with it rather than selling it off in pieces.

On the Bluffdale side of the same area, Independence at The Point is the mixed-density community already built there, and the page covers what living beside this much planned change is actually like.

It is also why the project matters to people who do not live in Draper. The land sits at the pinch point every commuter between the south valley and Utah County already drives through.

What is actually built versus what is planned

This is the distinction that gets lost when people talk about The Point at an open house.

Status	What that means
Under way	The state broke ground on the first phase in June 2026. Groundbreaking is the beginning of construction, not the end of it.
Planned, first phase	An event center, a multifamily building and a walkable main street are in the first phase (Salt Lake Tribune, July 16, 2026).
Planned, long horizon	The roughly $2.3 billion, ~600-acre district is a multi-decade build, not a project with a ribbon-cutting date you can put on a calendar.
Not promised to anyone	Specific tenants, specific stores, specific employers. Renderings are not leases.

If you are looking at a house in Draper and someone tells you a particular restaurant, office tower or school is “going in at The Point,” ask where they read it. Large districts change tenants, phasing and density over the years it takes to build them. The honest version is that the framework is real and funded enough to have started, and the details are not settled.

What The Point means if you are buying in Draper right now

Three things, in the order they will affect you.

Construction is the near-term reality. A district of this size means years of trucks, lane shifts and noise at the north end of Draper. If you are buying close to the site, you are buying next to a construction project first and a walkable district second. That is not a reason to avoid it. It is a reason to know which one you are buying.

Do not pay a premium today for what opens in 2035. This is the mistake I watch people make with every big project, road or otherwise. A buyer talks themselves into paying over the market for a house because of what is coming, and then has to sell in four years while the thing is still half built. Buy the house on what it is worth now, in the condition it is in now, with the commute you have now. If the district turns out well, you get the upside for free.

It does not change the fundamentals of the neighborhood you are buying in. Draper is a big, varied city, and the character of a street in east Draper has very little to do with what happens on the old prison site. If you are deciding where in Draper to look, the neighborhoods post is a more useful starting point than any district plan, and whether Draper suits you at all is a separate question from what the state builds a mile north.

What it means for Bluffdale, Riverton and Herriman

The Point is close enough to the south valley that people ask whether it will change things in Bluffdale or Herriman. The honest answer is: probably, eventually, in ways nobody can specify yet, and not in a way that should change what you buy this year.

What is worth noting is that Draper already has transit the rest of the south valley does not. FrontRunner has had a Draper station since December 10, 2012, and the TRAX Blue Line’s southern end is Draper Town Center, which opened August 18, 2013 (UTA). If access to rail is part of why a district like this gets built somewhere, Draper is starting from a different place than Herriman is. If you are weighing those two cities against each other, the Draper and Bluffdale comparison covers the trade-offs that are true today.

The honest caveat: who should ignore this entirely

If you are buying a house to live in for the next five to seven years, The Point should be roughly the tenth thing on your list. Your commute, the condition of the roof, the school your kids will actually attend and whether you can stand the street on a Saturday morning all matter more. Large planned districts are interesting. They are not a reason to buy a particular house.

The people who should pay close attention are narrower: buyers looking specifically at the north end of Draper who will be living next to the construction, and owners near the site who are deciding when to sell. For the second group, the timing question is real, and it is worth a conversation rather than a guess.

How to find out what is actually happening

Three sources beat every rumor:

The project’s own published materials and the state’s announcements. They will tell you what phase is under way.
Draper City. Zoning, approvals and anything about traffic and access to a specific street go through the city, and city staff will tell you what has actually been approved next to an address you care about.
Whoever is selling you the house — in writing. If a plan is part of why you are buying, get the claim in writing rather than as a comment in a hallway. That is true of new construction anywhere in the valley.

I am Kelsey Earl, a Realtor with Keller Williams South Valley, and the version of this conversation I have most often is not “is The Point good.” It is “should I buy near it now or wait.” That one depends entirely on how long you plan to stay, and it is worth ten minutes on the phone before you write an offer.

If you are moving to the area from out of state and trying to work out where in the valley to land, start with the relocation guide and then narrow to two or three cities before you look at a single listing.

Have a specific address in mind near the site, or trying to decide whether to sell before the construction years or after? Get in touch and I will give you the straight version.