This is a new "urban contemporary" apartment complex going up on the south end of Sugarhouse next to Brickyard Plaza.
208-unit upscale apartment community to be built in SLC
A pool on a raised deck will be one of the many amenities at Element 31.
By Barbara Rattle
The Enterprise
A 208-unit upscale apartment community targeting the Generation Y demographic should begin coming out of the ground in Salt Lake City next spring.
The $28 million Element 31 will be located on what is now the site of a 30-year-old parking deck that abuts the seven-story Brickyard office building at 1245 E. Brickyard Road, said Ryan Ritchie, a partner in the developing entity, Salt Lake City-based The Ritchie Group.
“We realized we were going to throw away a million dollars just to repair the parking deck, and happened to be looking for additional apartment sites,” he said. “Just by chance we looked at our site and noticed our zoning allows office and residential to be located on the same site. It’s a forward-thinking zone for urban infill.”
A new parking deck will feature three stories, one-and-a-half of them below grade. It will be shared by both the apartment dwellers and the office building tenants. Atop it will be a four-story apartment complex consisting of about 34 studios and 80 two-bedroom units; the balance will offer one bedroom. The average size will be around 815 square feet and cost roughly $1,000 to rent, Ritchie said.
“We’re focusing on the Generation Y market,” he said. “Our marketing study suggests that about 60 percent [of tenants] will be single females, so we really focused on Internet bandwidth and on security, with cameras and lighting. It will have an urban contemporary look” both inside and out.
Amenities will include a stainless steel pool on an elevated deck; a building with about 2,000 square feet of fitness equipment plus separate rooms for kickboxing and yoga; a clubhouse level with a theater wall sporting a 90-inch television and kitchen; a gaming area with fireplace and two 55-inch televisions, kitchen area and billiards; WiFi throughout; and a rooftop patio with seating areas, a firepit and boxes for growing fruits and vegetables. There will also be a dog run, as Element 31 will be pet-friendly and market research suggests that as many as 30 percent of tenants will want a companion animal.
Think Architecture designed the project, which will be built by Rimrock Construction. Ritchie said his firm is in the final stages of obtaining a loan from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, with the requisite equity from The Ritchie Group and its investors, to finance Element 31. AMC will manage the property.
“I think it’s going to be one of the best designed and best looking projects in the state,” Ritchie said.
The Ritchie Group, which owns and offices in the Brickyard office building, has not historically placed a heavy emphasis on apartments. However, Ritchie said the company follows trends and is currently in the process of working on additional apartment projects in Vernal and Pleasant Grove.
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