Quote:
Originally Posted by Viperlord
First floor street usage:
One developer asked about bottom floor retail, and asked why cant office space, or residential lobbies be a usage on main floors, and said that he thinks the market should be able to dictate what the first floor becomes. He pointed to a development in the "FireClay area" of murray and said that the development has retail on the ground floor, and residential above. He pointed out that none of that retail is being leased. He also brought up a good point, that development has to be done right. The fireclay developer made the mistake of not putting parking right close to the retail, instead it is located north of the development. Retailers want close secure and convenient parking, and Downtown Merchants and residents want the same. They pointed to development in Portland and stated that some of those developments have no parking at all, and asked if that would work here in SLC. The developers told them no, not at this time and moment, but we are slowly getting there.
Building materials:
The developers brought up a very good point with zoning and building materials. Apparantly the wood stick-frame structure is not suitable over 7 floors, that being 2 floors of concrete parking and 5 floors of residential housing. The stick frame cuts cost of the building by $125 more or less per sq ft. As soon as you hit 8 floors you have to use a different type of structuring whether it be steel or concrete. Dan had mentioned that they call the 8-10 floor range the "no-mans land". Meaning that a steel structure of 8-10 floors would be increasingly difficult to turn a profit with. But as you get higher with steel and concrete it makes it more profitable, this was another thing that they were pushing for higher heights in the TOD.
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Lots of good points from the meeting. Its easy for us to sit back and say "they should have built that out of steel instead of wood" but on certain types of projects, its almost entirely unfeasable to make any money if you do. If a developer can't make money on a project, they aren't going to pursue it.
As for Birkhill @ Fireclay and its ground floor retail, parking is not the issue. The project is part of a TOD district, so parking is obviuosly not going to be what you'd find in a suburban shopping center. Even so, there is parallel parking on the street and a large lot behind the building and plenty of access between parking and retail space The first phase (Building B) is all that is currently complete, but as you can see, there is plenty of available, safe, and convinient parking:
The lease space at Birkhill won't stay vacant forever. The area is still probably not a prime retail location because nobody lives or works there yet. Once the condos above begin closing and residents and office workers begin to populate the area, the retail scene will improve as well. The sour housing market has certainly slowed the pace of progression on the project, but it will be a real asset to the area when completely built-out. This is basically the first large, ground-up, mixed-use TOD in the state, and we're learning a lot as we go.
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