I had lunch yesterday in a new Main Street restaurant with a new friend named Jon Dean, who is the executive producer for Electronic Arts, Inc. EA is a global leader of digital gaming. They moved 100 new jobs to downtown Salt Lake City from a studio in Bountiful a couple of months ago.

Based in Redwood, California, EA develops, publishes and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, wireless devices and the Internet. But anyone who has a computer, PS3, Wii or children probably just knows them by their tagline: It’s in the Game. EA has a huge range of gaming products, but their Utah office is comprised primarily of developers who focus on family-friendly offerings.

EA’s employees represent the “creative class” a new group of high-tech workers, artists and designers identified by economist Richard Florida who are a driving force for economic development. Their skills allow them to live anywhere in the world – as long as they have access to the Internet, cell phones and an airport.

Jon said EA decided to move into cool downtown digs because an urban location is more dynamic than the suburbs and more appealing to his creative employees. He also noted that the state’s transportation infrastructure converges in the city center. Jon likes the fact that multiple services are right outside his door, including restaurants, retail, nightlife, cultural offerings, the Utah Jazz, as well as and downtown events like the Utah Arts Festival, Twilight Concert Series and Farmers Market. EA is helping to contribute to downtown’s renaissance, continuing the momentum for revitalization of Utah’s capital city.

This week, downtown also welcomes the first wave of Goldman Sachs employees who are temporarily moving into the Chamber of Commerce Building while multiple floors of 222 Main are prepared for their eventual long-term home. Demographically, the Goldman employees are similar to the EA team. They are young, well-educated, tech-savvy and have a unique skill set that allows them to live anywhere in the world, as long as they have access to technology.  In the next several months, hundreds of additional Goldman employees will make the move to the city center, joining other large downtown employers like Fidelity Investments, Intermountain Healthcare, Wells Fargo and Zions Bank.

Utah is a good fit for corporate regional headquarters like EA and Goldman that are looking to expand and grow. We have an enviable quality-of-life, inexpensive cost of living and doing business, and an increasingly dynamic urban community that can support the demands of world-class companies.  Working with our partners at Salt Lake City, EDCU, and GOED, we are looking for ways to help existing companies continue to succeed, while attracting more regional corporate headquarters to the region’s urban hub.

There are plenty of reasons that people who can live anywhere in the world should choose to live right here, right now. There has never been a better time to live, work, eat, shop and play downtown.

Jason Mathis is the executive director of the Downtown Alliance