The gray stucco veneer that gives the dilapidated old Reams store on State Road a new look might cause passers-by to wonder who's moving in.
But there's already a business in the building - has been for three years.Covenant Communications, celebrating its 35th anniversary, uses most of the 60,000-square-foot building as a recording studio, publishing house and distribution center. The company, which targets LDS audiences, moved from Salt Lake City in 1990.
During its years in business, Covenant has tried to keep up with current technology and demand for LDS-oriented products. Its books and tapes are designed to inspire and entertain, said Robby Nichols, vice president of marketing.
Covenant Communications started in 1958 as Covenant Recordings. When Lew Kofford, current president, joined the company in 1975, he added a full line of talk and music tapes. Books later became a large part of the business, prompting the name change.
Covenant edits, lays out and designs covers for books. Manuscripts are sent out for printing.
"What's really selling now is fiction books with Book of Mormon characters," Nichols said. Covenant publishes about 20 manuscripts a year but is looking do more. "We're trying to double the output of books," he said.
Its $2.8 million in sales last year ranks Covenant as the third-largest publisher and tape producer in the LDS market behind Deseret Book and Bookcraft. Nichols said the business is growing about 10 percent a year. It sells to about 400 retail outlets, primarily LDS bookstores. Covenant, 920 E. State Road, employs 25 people.
Covenant's first product, word-for-word narrations of the LDS scriptures on gold-colored 331/3LPs, is obsolete. The company now produces compact discs and cassette tapes in its own studio decked out with the latest computerized, digital recording equipment.
Covenant is currently producing an album of opera singer Michael Ballam singing with the Mormon Youth Symphony and Chorus. It will mark the 19th time the company and the symphony have teamed up.
Nichols said Covenant will open up the studio for musicians or school bands or choruses to make their own recordings. For $3,995, Covenant will produce 1,000 compact discs and 500 cassettes. The studio is equipped with the latest digital recording equipment.
"If I can make it sound good in here, it will sound good anywhere," said Blair Leishman, audio engineer.
Nichols said Covenant also plans to record motivational or inspirational speakers with live audiences, making them part of the tape. Orators are at their best in front of an audience, he said.