After nearly two years of pre-construction services performed by R&O Construction, and a capitol campaign launched by the American Cancer Society of Utah in 2011, the first shovel of dirt was turned signaling construction of the Hope Lodge of Utah. The groundbreaking took place May 14 with hundreds of donors, volunteers and American Cancer Society regional and local board members in attendance.

The Utah Hope Lodge will be the 32nd Hope Lodge in the United States, and the only Hope Lodge in the Intermountain West. It will also be the second of its size in the United States, with 41 bedroom suites for cancer patients who travel to Salt Lake City for treatment.

The Hope Lodge of Utah concept began in 2007, and it took more than three years to find its location at 1^st South and 4^th East in Salt Lake City, a site donated to them by the LDS church.

R&O Construction expects to complete the Lodge by the summer of 2015.