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Salt Lake City’s first Cabinet-level economic-development czar is departing for a job in Virginia

Salt Lake City’s economic development director is stepping down in August to take a job in Virginia, after three years in Utah’s capital city.

Lara Fritts, 48, has been the first person to head the city’s Department of Economic Development since Mayor Jackie Biskupski elevated it to a Cabinet-level position, shortly after the mayor took office in 2016.

Biskupski said Monday that Fritts had succeeded in creating a world-class economic development campaign on the city’s behalf, having a hand in generating over 9,000 new jobs, drawing nearly $1 billion in capital investment and luring two dozen new employers to Salt Lake City.