Salt Lake:Official development news thread

[Utaaah!]

Originally Posted by SLC Projects

I thought I remember hearing that the Boston Buidling was going to be turn into Condos a while back? What would of been cool.

I think the Newhouse Building next door is slated for condos.

Just re-read the article - I guess not.

[terryaki]

Originally Posted by wrendog

I think we have offended Delts.. for a guy who averages over 7 posts a day to not have posted for the last two days tells me something.

I'm suddenly starting to miss some of his article posting.

[Northernlad]

Originally Posted by SLC Projects

I thought I remember hearing that the Boston Buidling was going to be turn into Condos a while back? What would of been cool.

That would be a great building for condos. I've always thought that is one of the most beautiful buildings in downtown.

[Scraperdude801]

yeah I heard the same thing about the Boston building. ... I love that alleyway behind there (from 300 s. to 400 s.) That and exchange place have some really cool architecture. I like how much history is shown in the alleyway. It looks really rugged , which I like. ... haha that was a lil off topic.

[SLCforme]

A few months ago we were discussing how the owner of several run-down historic homes on the corner of 7th E. 3rd S. wanted to tear them down and build condos. I drove by there today and there are for sale signes on all three homes as well as the empty corner lot. I wonder if the city denied his request so he's trying to cut and run. Anyone heard anything?

On another note, the site of One and Nine condos (corner of 1st S. 9th E.)is being excavated and looks like utility work is being done. I can't find any renderings of this project, all I can find is on Pentalon constructions website.
"43 Condo units located in Salt Lake City. High end finishes, underground parking, rooftop amenties. Four penthouse units" $11.3 million contract"

Sounds nice but probably not very tall based on the size of the site.

[SLC Tortfeasor]

Originally Posted by SLC Projects

I thought I remember hearing that the Boston Buidling was going to be turn into Condos a while back? What would of been cool.

Yes, I did too, and thought the same thing as everyone else. And then I asked a decision maker at Hamilton Partners about it, and he said it was slated for condos -- office condos. Just because it's a condo doesn't mean that it's for residential purposes.

I work in the Exchange Place area, and I would have to say that residential condos in the Boston building would not be so great. The Boston Building not only faces the Newhouse building, it's actually pretty close to it. So if you lived in the Boston building, you'd likely just have a very boring view of Newhouse offices and lawyers at work. People on the east and west sides of the building would have nice views, but most residents would be stuck in the middle. Also, the noise from Trax trains reverberates between the Newhouse and Boston buildings and would probably be very annoying unless you had some very good soundproof windows.

[Makid]

I found this in the Deseret News this morning...

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660218821,00.html

Just pasting parts that I find relevant...

Chicago law firm at Salt Lake tower

Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione taking space in the planned building

A Chicago-based law firm with offices in Salt Lake City has signed a lease agreement for space in what will be the city's third-tallest office tower.
Skidmore, Owings Merrill, LLPThe 21-story office tower is planned for 222 S. Main. The law firm is its first publicly announced tenant. Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione announced Tuesday that it would lease 7,500 square feet in the soon-to-be built 222 building in downtown Salt Lake City. Roughly 25 percent of the 440,000-square-foot building is pre-leased, Dahlstrom said, and half of the building is expected to be pre-leased in the coming months.

Premium office space in downtown Salt Lake City is nearly nonexistent, as the vacancy rate for class A properties in the central business district fell to 0.70 percent in the first quarter, down from a 1.35 percent average in 2006, according to a Commerce CRG report. "We need to have class A space downtown right now in order to continue the great economic growth that's been occurring in this market," Dahlstrom said.

Dahlstrom said Tuesday that the building is now set to start construction in July. It will be completed in June 2009

Not a full article but at least it is new information. And ouch on the class A office space availability

We need more class A office space downtown and quickly.

[wrendog]

Sweet.. 3rd tallest... that means taller than Utah One center across the street. good news!

[gbb]

It is nice to hear something about 222 South Main again...

[Wasatch_One]

Originally Posted by wrendog

Sweet.. 3rd tallest... that means taller than Utah One center across the street. good news!

This info means it will be taller than 350' cause I think One Utah and the Beneficial Life (now Key Bank) building are both around that 350' height.

Not too shabby and it will add some bulk

[i-215]

Originally Posted by Makid

And ouch on the class A office space availability.

SLC is simply efficent in not wasting any vacant space...sort of how tailgating prevents traffic jams by taking advantage of "wasted" space.

[Makid]

SLC is simply efficent in not wasting any vacant space...sort of how tailgating prevents traffic jams by taking advantage of "wasted" space.

That is very true. I am wondering how many supply closets are being turned into offices around the city as more room is needed.

Would really hate to work in a supply closet...

[SLCforme]

if it's (222 S. Main) over 350 ft at 21 stories than that would be an average of 17 ft/floor. that seems like an awful lot. Of course it may have a double height ground floor but that would still put it at at least 16 ft/floor. seems like they could squeeze in another floor or two at that height.
I agree that it's good to hear about it though.

[Makid]

I think the floor count is off in the article. The last I heard was that it was upped to 22 floors.

I am personally thinking the final height will be around 375'.

[SLC Projects]

Here are some updated photos of downtown projects since it's been awhile.




V Gateway Tower ( Not really a tower, more like a building )
I wish this building would be taller. Having only a 62,000 Sq. foot Five story building with NO underground parking in downtown is weak. ( But I guess it's better then nothing. ) But they could have done alot better.




Metro Condos ( 7-story Condo building that is make out of Wood. )
I love the size, I love the design, but I hate that it's make out of wood. What is up with that? What are we trying to save some money here?





LDS Church Library
This Five story building is taking forever to build. But we are starting to see it come up above the ground level now. I think this building will look nice once it's finish. At least it's not make out of wood.





Site of City Creek Condo Towers 4 and 5.
This photo is from the 15th floor of the Key Bank tower. Might as well use the tower to get great views before it comes down. But on the side we can see that the Mall on South Temple is now gone and Two 8-story Condo building will be build in it's place. But please don't make it out of wood like the Metro.





Site of the City Creek Condo Tower 2
This will be the grand daddy of all Condo buildings in downtown if build. A 32-story Tower will be build in the place on the Crossroads Mall that faces 100 South. Demo is underway on this site.

[Sight-Seer]

What I don't understand is with a less than one percent vacancy rate of (class A) office space, why isn't somebody planning some big office buildings? One would take a couple years to build and the demand will only increase during that time. What happened to the law of supply and demand? Part of the problem is that in the current market a building has to be mostly pre-leased before a bank will finance it.

[SLCforme]

It is cheesey that Metro is wood, but they do have steel supports on the sides. We were talking before about how we couldn't imagine that wood would be earthquake-safe, but someone explained to me that the steel supports in select areas makes it such.

222 S Main (if ever built) will open up alot more class A space but it will be two years from now. With Fidelity moving over to thier new building at the gateway thus freeing up space and Walker Center being upgraded to class A space this summer, supply should cover demand (I hope). Also the Boston building and (can't remember the name, but the building Olive Garden is in) are being upgraded to class B that should cover the class B needs that are being taken out by Walker going up to class A. But class B and C both still have plenty of vacancy downtown. (Drive around downtown and you'll see For Lease signs everywhere).

We all want to see more towers going up but I really think that (if 222 S. main gets rolling) supply will cover demand for a bit. What we really need is a large company that wants a tower for its corporate headquarters downtown.

[arkhitektor]

Why wouldn't they frame it out of wood? Wood contruction can be engineered to be just as stable as a steel framed building - and wood framing is far less expensive.

The main benefit to using steel framing in a low-rise building like this is that you wouldn't need as many interior bearing partitions, but in a residential application (vs. a commercial or retail space) you are going to have walls separating the units, rooms and spaces anyway. These can be used for bearing as well.

(Compare the pic of the new Gateway office building to the one of the Metro condos and you'll see the open spans that steel framing allows vs. wood framed residential.)

I would honestly be more surprised to see it being framed with steel than most seem to be that it is being wood framed. -- It would make little sense for a developer to add significant cost to the project for something that when finished, nobody will be able to see or notice.

[i-215]

From a safety perspective, I'd rather be in a wood-framed building in an earthquake collapse.... but in a fire, I'd rather be in a steel-and-concrete building.

But honestly, I can't tell which type of construction my apartment in Provo is made out of, so hopefully it won't matter to me, or the tenants of this new project.

Though I must admit that I'd surprised framing can be used for a 7-story building. Seems like there would be building codes against it.

[SLC Tortfeasor]

Thanks for the pictures! We need more!