The Other Side of Cache Valley Billionaire Real Estate Developer Dell Loy Hansen: He's Also Been Quietly Funding Utah's Life Sciences Industry

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

✅ Utahn Dell Loy Hansen built Wasatch Group into a real estate empire with more than $4 billion in real estate assets, over 18,000 apartments under management, and more than 3 million square feet of commercial property.

✅ However, what is less well-known about Hansen are his interests in Utah's Life Sciences industry, which include investments and partnerships involving such firms as Avia Vascular, Biomerics, Canyon Labs, and Nusano, plus two Hansen-related investment vehicles that have reported over $25.7 million in securities sold.

✅ Original Utah Money Watch reporting documents nearly completed construction of a medical innovation development center in West Valley City, Utah, one with deep Hansen ties that is currently advertising nearly 494,000 square feet in available space across five buildings.

11 November 2026 — LOGAN, Utah and WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah —Although most people who know Dell Loy Hansen know him as a dramatically successful Cache Valley, Utah real estate developer, the surprising truth is that the 73-year-old businessman has also been quietly funding Life Sciences enterprises in Utah for several years.

So much so that BioUtah (the state's leading Life Sciences trade association) is presenting Hansen with its "Friend of the Industry Award" during the Mayer Brown Utah Life Sciences Summit being held today in Salt Lake City.

To be clear, Hansen is not merely a wealthy investor occasionally writing checks to healthcare startups. In fact, our reporting shows that his involvement also reaches into
🟣 Medical-device manufacturing,
🟣 Radioisotope technology,
🟣 Specialized real estate, and
🟣 Health-related university philanthropy.

So, here's the rest of the story that few Utahns know about Dell Loy Hansen.

First, the Real Estate Empire

While the numbers explain why real estate dominates Hansen's reputation, there is an irony in that, given the scale of what he is now helping finance and build outside the conventional property business.

Yet the more closely I examined his Life Sciences relationships, the more apparent it became that the two pursuits are not entirely separate for Hansen.

Wasatch Group, the Logan, Utah-headquartered business he founded in 1988, is associated with more than $4 billion in real estate assets, according to its property-management company's corporate profile.

Its residential division manages more than 18,000 apartments across over 80 communities in five western states, while Wasatch Commercial Management owns and manages more than 3 million square feet of commercial properties valued above $1.2 billion.

Please note that those are figures for businesses and portfolios, not a valuation of Hansen's personal net worth or a claim that he owns every managed property outright. Nevertheless, they establish the scale of a real estate enterprise that few Utah entrepreneurs can match.

Hansen grew up in Cache Valley, graduated from Utah State University in 1982, and built a real estate business whose headquarters remain in Logan, Utah.

Earlier this year, I heard Hansen speak at a business conference held at Utah State University where he reluctantly acknowledged his billionaire status yet declined to specify his net worth, a distinction worth preserving given the private ownership structures involved in his businesses.

His public legacy has also included some controversy as allegations involving workplace conduct and racially insensitive remarks preceded his departure from control of Real Salt Lake, which Major League Soccer announced had been sold in January 2022.

Three years ago, however, the Deseret News documented a softer side to Hansen, including his $70 million humanitarian endeavor to create housing in Ukraine for citizens displaced by the Russia/Ukraine war.

What I did not know previously about Hansen, however, was the fact that his real estate successes had found application in an entirely different industry.

Following the Healthcare Money

One window into that activity is Wasatch Health, formerly MedVenture Health, which announced its new name in May 2025. The investment platform was co-founded by Hansen and targets healthcare companies seeking growth equity and other forms of financing.

Separately, filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission document investments made into investment vehicles of Salt Lake City-based Wasatch Health of
🟢  Over $20.6 million in October 2026, and
🟢  $5.1 million in January 2026,
with more fundraising anticipated.

To be clear, the amounts shown above do not establish
▪️ The amount of money Hansen personally invested,
▪️ The value of the funds' holdings, or
▪️ How much has actually been deployed into various companies.

Still, these figures give readers a documented starting point for understanding the healthcare capital moving through Wasatch-related investment entities.

I also believe it invites a series of questions worth pursuing:
🟥  How much of the underlying portfolio represents ownership stakes in operating companies?
🟥  How much involves loans/debt?
🟥  And how much is invested alongside other institutions?

Naturally, such distinctions ultimately determine who controls the businesses and who receives the returns.

From Medical Devices to Radioisotopes

Interestingly, Hansen's operating-company relationships in the Life Sciences field were more varied than I expected.

For example, in May 2023 Canadian private-equity investor ONCAP announced an investment in Salt Lake City-based Biomerics, a medical-device manufacturer, alongside a combination with Precision Concepts Medical.

Wasatch Equity Partners was identified in the release as an existing shareholder, as was Travis Sessions, the Founder, President, CEO, and Chairman of Biomerics, an executive listed in SEC filings as an investor in Wasatch Health.

The BioUtah news release announcing the awards being presented today also names Canyon Labs and Avia Vascular among businesses benefiting from Hansen-connected investments and partnerships.

{AUTHOR'S NOTE: Exact ownership percentages and values have not, however, been publicly disclosed.}

Then there is Nusano, an exciting firm developing technology to produce radioisotopes for medical and industrial applications, including cancer diagnostics and treatment.

BioUtah's 2025 Biosphere report says Nusano had, at the time, raised more than $400 million in debt and equity.

Nusano opened a 190,000-square-foot production building in West Valley City, Utah in August 2025. In a June 2026 update, it reported completing the first of three major accelerator-commissioning milestones.

Wasatch Commercial Developers lists Nusano among its projects, directly connecting the company to Wasatch's development business.

Where Real Estate and Life Sciences Intersect

When I visited Wasatch Group's Medical Innovation Technology Research Campus in West Valley City last week, I found many of the new buildings in the final stages of buildout.

The industrial/flex buildings are substantially erected, with windows installed, facades largely finished, and access areas and parking lots mostly paved.

Being on-site was a different experience from reading a development brochure as multiple buildings highlighted where prospective tenants could conceivably begin planning how to fit out their operations.

Inside, broad concrete floors, overhead doors and mezzanine structures are visible, along with materials and equipment indicating that finishing work remains.

More revealing was the on-site leasing sign, the one that advertises five buildings totaling 493,693 square feet, with individual sizes ranging from 91,214 to 113,144 square feet.

Advertised availability dates ran from April through October 2026, although construction was visibly continuing during my visit.

Another sign promotes leasing options in a 421,212-square-foot office-and-laboratory building.

{AUTHOR'S NOTE: Whether that is an additional phase or a separate concept was unclear.}

Meanwhile, Ratio Therapeutics announced plans in May 2025 for a 65,000-square-foot radiopharmaceutical manufacturing facility with Wasatch Group, targeting operations in the second half of 2027.

More Than a Friend of the Industry

Hansen's participation extends beyond commercial investments as University of Utah trustee records document a $2 million gift commitment by Hansen and his wife, Dr. Julie Aiken Hansen, toward the James LeVoy Sorenson Center for Medical Innovation, with payments scheduled through 2030.

When considered together —
🟢  A multibillion-dollar real estate business,
🟢  Fundraising through healthcare investment entities,
🟢  Relationships with medical manufacturers and a radioisotope company,
🟢  A soon-to-open medical innovation campus in Salt Lake County, and
🟢  Support for university-based medical innovation —
clearly Dell Loy Hansen has moved far beyond straightforward real estate development.

Because of the mostly private nature of Hansen's real estate and Life Sciences investment / development efforts, it's impossible to personally suss-out the varied ownership interests, debt, outside investors, and different forms of capital, which is fine with me.

But what our reporting has revealed is something many Utahns may not have appreciated about the man they principally know as a real estate developer.

At his stage in life, retirement is a path taken by many people.

Instead, Hansen appears intent on applying decades of experience with buildings, investors, and operating businesses to a sector where developing a promising product is only one part of the commercial challenge.

In other words, the BioUtah award Dell Loy Hansen is slated to receive today recognizes another dimension of his empire, one that stretches beyond his nearly 40-year journey in real estate to intersect with the Life Sciences world.

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