Salt Lake MSA Development Thread

[SLC Projects]

Originally Posted by Future Mayor

Jordan Valley Station

I just read in the Enterprise the announcment of a joint venture TOD with UTA and Bangerter Station LLC, which is owned by Foursquare properties.

The development will be at the Jordan Valley Station (approx 3400 W 8600 S) and will be a truly mixed use TOD. The first phase will be two four story residential buildings consisting of a total of 252 units with a mix of 1 and 2 bedrooms, the residential units will wrap around two UTA parking garages.

Approximately half of the 900 spaces will be reserved for residential use, and the others for park and ride uses. Ground is scheduled to be broken on the two apartments buildings before the end of the year and will be completed in 12 to 18 months.

Total build out for the entire project will be completed as the market demands and will consist of 1,396 residential units, 83,200 sf of office, and 35,400 sf of retial.

Foursquare Properties owns Jordan Landing and is the company redeveloping the Sugarhouse Granite Furniture building. As a side note, Foursquare Properties said that most of the ground level retail spaces at the Granite site have been leased.

My wife and I went driving past those two parking garage just the other day and my wife ask me does UTA really need all those parking spaces. I told her that it's not just meant for only park and ride and that the way the garage looks I'm guessing a future building would wrap around it. Only my guess was a office building, not apartment. But nevertheless, this is great news. great wait to see that area develop.

[StevenF]

Originally Posted by Future Mayor

Jordan Valley Station

I just read in the Enterprise the announcment of a joint venture TOD with UTA and Bangerter Station LLC, which is owned by Foursquare properties.

The development will be at the Jordan Valley Station (approx 3400 W 8600 S) and will be a truly mixed use TOD. The first phase will be two four story residential buildings consisting of a total of 252 units with a mix of 1 and 2 bedrooms, the residential units will wrap around two UTA parking garages.

Approximately half of the 900 spaces will be reserved for residential use, and the others for park and ride uses. Ground is scheduled to be broken on the two apartments buildings before the end of the year and will be completed in 12 to 18 months.

Total build out for the entire project will be completed as the market demands and will consist of 1,396 residential units, 83,200 sf of office, and 35,400 sf of retial.

Foursquare Properties owns Jordan Landing and is the company redeveloping the Sugarhouse Granite Furniture building. As a side note, Foursquare Properties said that most of the ground level retail spaces at the Granite site have been leased.

This is a developer that knows how to build a TOD. Build the housing first and put the population in place, then bring in the retail and commercial.

[arkhitektor]

Hopefully the can make it work. The Fireclay TOD was mostly a failure, at least as a mixed-use community. I used to work at Hamlet Homes, which developed the first building there. There was no demand for the commercial space, which even four years later is mostly vacant. They ended up converting the condos to apartments, replace the next building with townhomes which didn't sell well, and that project eventually brought down the whole company. Everything that has been built there since then is apartments. Hopefully in time with more residents in the area there will be greater demend for commercial and retail uses, but for now Fireclay is basically a large apartment complex with a TRAX stop in the middle of it.
It was one of the first real efforts at creating a TOD in Utah and is sort of a case study in what can go wrong. It has shown that you can't just create a whole mixed-use community from scratch. There really has to be a strong existing residential base before there will be any demand for the pther elements that create mixed-use. I hope that the city of West Jordan will be more adaptable, because even as the whole project was failing at Fireclay, we sat in meetings with the city of Murray whose planner kept going on about independant bookstores and coffee shops even as the condos sat empty and they refused to allow changes that would make the project work.

[Old&New]

I think the reason fireclay failed is because phase one wasnt big enough. It just didn't have a critical mass of housing units to support retail. I think new developments should be built to adapt to the market environment. New buildings could have ground level space that is flexible to any use. That way, if there is demand for ground level retail, there is space that could be used as retail. If not, it could be a studio apartment.

[ajiuO]

It looks like the former 49th street galleria / Utah Fun Dome has been sold and is likely to be ripped down.

http://www.deseretnews.com/m/article/865559848

That is to bad. I blame the former owner Larry Kates. If he would have sold it to Boondocks, when they wanted to buy it, before settling on Draper instead. It would still be in opperstion today. Instead he wasted millions of dollars on his crazy buisness ideas that he wouldnt even get behind and give a chance to flourish. Now he has nothing to show for it and it sounds like we might loose that iconic building on the side of the freeway... However the article doesn't say its being ripped down. I guess its possible that the building will be used for commercial use and all of the parking on the north of the property and opposing block will be residential.. That would make sense because the north parking lot is next to 2 large apartment complexes. The land on the other side of galleria way with the small parking lot and to vacant houses is also a part of the property.. There is a lot of unused land in the deal... So maybe the main building is safe.. Only time will tell.

[SLC Projects]

Originally Posted by ajiuO

It looks like the former 49th street galleria / Utah Fun Dome has been sold and is likely to be ripped down.

I saw this coming for awhile now. When you had failing business after failing business that have come and go during the last 8 years it was just a matter of time before a developer comes in to redevelop the land.
Ever since the drive by shooting that took place back in 2003 ( I was there that night. ) The Fun Dome has gone down hill.

[ajiuO]

Originally Posted by SLC Projects

I saw this coming for awhile now. When you had failing business after failing business that have come and go during the last 8 years it was just a matter of time before a developer comes in to redevelop the land.
Ever since the drive by shooting that took place back in 2003 ( I was there that night. ) The Fun Dome has gone down hill.

Big misconception. I actually worked there at the time. Business had been going down prior to the shooting as a result of bad management and business decisions. There were a few factors that I could go on and on about... But I assure you the shooting had no effect on business. The guy who owned the place was a big real-estate guy.. He was very eccentric and liked to through money behind his ideas but then would not give them a chance before giving up on it and trying something else. The fun dome closure was planned for a while. The owner wanted to convert the property in to a trade collage (salt lake valley collage). Then a few months prior to opening he changed his mind and decided he wanted to make it in to a convention center (salt lake pavilion), he purchased a hotel near by, rebranded it "Pavillian Inn" (as far as I know he still operates the hotel). Then at some point during the process he decided that he wanted it to be some kind of a restaurant mall. He open a buffet but kept the name salt lake pavilion. That wasn't working out so he decided to turn it in to a pet center. he relocated veterinarians and their family's from out of state and everything... Then one day he just closed it down without warning.

Considering how much money the guy had I'm not sure how the bank got a hold of it. I was under the impression that he paid cash for the place. He got it for less then half of what it was originally built for. The original owners were embezzling money from their own company from the beginning. The one in salt lake was built, then they built one as part of a mall in another state, they had plans for more locations and had started construction on at least 1 more when they lost it. When the new owner bought it the name was changed to fun dome to show new ownership.. 49th street had gotten a bad reputation because of a managers who was molesting children.

So it wasn't a matter of your every day failing business... It was just a crazy guy with a lot of ideas and a lot of money that took it down...

Here is a commercial for the second 49th street galleria built in philidethia. No one came in to save that location like they did with ours so it closed around the time that ours became the fun dome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrRuWdd_7Ok&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[Stenar]

The 49th St. Galleria will be forever memorialized in the Tiffany video for "I Think We're Alone Now."

As well as the old Ogden Mall and Fashion Place Mall.

• Video Link

[arkhitektor]

I didn't grow up in Utah and it was well into its decline when I first saw it. So, what was it originally anyway? Some sort of mall?

I cant really see any commecrial venture succeeding there. It has good visibility from the freeway but it is pretty hard to actually get to. Ideally, it should probably just be residential after redevelopment.

[Old&New]

The youtube video link posted by ajiuO explains it. My favorite feature of the 49th street galleria was the 2-level carousel. Also loved the miniature golf course (seen above) and the skating rink.

[arkhitektor]

Originally Posted by Old&New

The youtube video link posted by ajiuO explains it. My favorite feature of the 49th street galleria was the 2-level carousel. Also loved the miniature golf course (seen above) and the skating rink.

So, according to the video it was an alchohol and smoke free replica of a Parisian village where teens could hang out and go bowling?
It still doesn't make any sense to me.

[wrendog]

Originally Posted by arkhitektor

So, according to the video it was an alchohol and smoke free replica of a Parisian village where teens could hang out and go bowling?
It still doesn't make any sense to me.

It was a fun center with bowling, mini golf and laser tag. Nothing more, nothing less. But boy did I love going to the 49th street galleria when I was a kid!

[ajiuO]

It was built as a fun center... The video is not the Utah one.. The Utah one had the same look but was much much larger.

[Old&New]

Um, the video starts out at the Ogden city mall; I'm pretty sure it is the one in Utah. Looks the way I remembered it.

Edited: oh, I thought you meant in the Tiffany video.

[Future Mayor]

Ahh the good times I had at the Galleria, I went skating there all through Junior High, and my first year or two of High School. Oh the many many names and numbers I got, well before the cell phone days. GOOD TIMES.

As for how the owner may have lost it to the bank, I would guess that he didn't pay property taxes and there was a tax lein that the county levied on the property and was then taken over by the bank.

[UTPlanner]

Thanks for the video Stenar. I remember going to the Ogden City Mall during that era-- some fond and maybe less fond memories come to mind.

[Orlando]

I went to the 49th Street Galleria when it first opened, and I thought it was absolutely amazing! They had rooms and rooms full of video games. Then they had bowling, miniature golf, roller skating, a stage for events, such as the band CHICAGO!! The whole place was super cool with the main pathways looking like cobblestone roads, and the sides looking like old fancy buildings along a nice streetscape with lampposts, ec. I saw Anything Box at the Roller Rink. They also turned the roller rink into dancing.

[DCRes]

My mom tells the story that when i was a kid we went to the gallaria. A few weeks later I asked her, "when are we going to go to the 49th street diarrhea again". Oh man, i was a smart kid!

[jedikermit]

I don't have anything of value to add, except that I too have fond memories of the 49th Street Galleria, but they can't tear that building down fast enough to satisfy me. It's time. Let it go. Use the space for something better now.

AAAAND, I never ever thought I'd have Tiffany in my head in 2012. Thanks, Stenar. Thanks so. Very. Much.

[SLCdude]

Complete map of the Jordan River Parkway is finally available online!

http://www.recreation.slco.org/parks/jordanRiverParkway/index.html