Salt Lake City: Official Development News Thread - Part 3

[SLC Projects]

"Public financing secured for downtown megahotel"

http://m.sltrib.com/sltrib/mobile3/57678271-219/center-convention-conventions-hotel.html.csp

[ctobsl]

Originally Posted by SLC Projects

"Public financing secured for downtown megahotel"

http://m.sltrib.com/sltrib/mobile3/57678271-219/center-convention-conventions-hotel.html.csp

Nice...!

[StevenF]

I should not have read the comments on that article.

[Deek1978]

I don't post on the SLC Forum too often. I grew up in St. George and I live in Utah County. I love riding the train up to SLC, and did so the past week with my wife and kids. We spent a fun afternoon in Salt Lake, and I loved showing my wife where all the new buildings are going to be. She thought it was cool that I knew all that stuff.

Anyway, I thought that I would offer up what I would like to see as part of the CCH... If the future builder really wants to impress people, they need to build a new tallest... perhaps a new tallest by 100'. Make it noticeably the tallest, and then, throw a restaurant in the top of that thing. If the Hotel is going to separated from the highrise congestion by a block or two, there's needs to be a space where people can go and enjoy the view from 360 degrees. I imagine a 500' tall tower with an observation deck, or glass walled restaurant would be a pretty popular spot in SLC... Just my thought... If you don't agree, I'd love to hear your suggestions.

[ajiuO]

Originally Posted by Deek1978

I don't post on the SLC Forum too often. I grew up in St. George and I live in Utah County. I love riding the train up to SLC, and did so the past week with my wife and kids. We spent a fun afternoon in Salt Lake, and I loved showing my wife where all the new buildings are going to be. She thought it was cool that I knew all that stuff.

Anyway, I thought that I would offer up what I would like to see as part of the CCH... If the future builder really wants to impress people, they need to build a new tallest... perhaps a new tallest by 100'. Make it noticeably the tallest, and then, throw a restaurant in the top of that thing. If the Hotel is going to separated from the highrise congestion by a block or two, there's needs to be a space where people can go and enjoy the view from 360 degrees. I imagine a 500' tall tower with an observation deck, or glass walled restaurant would be a pretty popular spot in SLC... Just my thought... If you don't agree, I'd love to hear your suggestions.

I would like to see a nice 40-50 story building.. I think most people on here only want the skyline to be pushed up by about 15-20 feet at a time because having somthing 30-40% taller then everything else might look weird from I15... I don't like that way of looking at things.. Because it will take way too long for us to get taller buildings.. I would rather see one dramatically taller building to start with... I think it would make a new height limit acceptable.. And others would follow.

[Orlando]

Originally Posted by airhero

The LDS Church has taken an official stance on alcohol laws and even released a video with Elder Christofferson talking about. They strongly oppose loosening alcohol laws and in that way, they are definitely pushing people to vote against liberalization, particularly those belonging to the LDS faith. I don't doubt there are more people who would vote to loosen liquor laws if the LDS Church had never gotten involved in the matter.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57429543-78/utah-alcohol-church-liquor.html.csp

I stand corrected. Well, this is Utah. It is the stronghold of us teetotalling Mormons. I wonder, however, if they could allow for designated pockets in SLC for bars and stuff, like, Pierpont Avenue, 9th and 9th, etc. instead of a uniform law and zoning restriction.

[Future Mayor]

Originally Posted by StevenF

I should not have read the comments on that article.

I decided to call them all out on commented on several comments and posted a comment explaining how it works.

[Orlando]

Originally Posted by SLC Projects

"Public financing secured for downtown megahotel"

http://m.sltrib.com/sltrib/mobile3/57678271-219/center-convention-conventions-hotel.html.csp

I think the straight $8 million is not enough and too generic to allow for compensation of multiple years of loss to other hotels. There must be something that I'm missing to understand how financially conservative congress members of Utah approved of this.

Also, I really doubt that we will see a developer step up anytime soon to build the mega hotel, when they still have to put up $300 million of their own financing for such a hotel in downtown SLC. But, maybe I'm wrong. I hope I'm wrong, and I hope that the people overseeing this project don't make the same mistakes of those who oversaw the cheaper expansions of the Salt Palace. Hopefully, their goal will be similar to the people that oversaw the development of the Salt Lake Library, where architecture and place was a big priority. I'd much rather see a hotel with some architectural finesse than a vanilla and stout box of a hotel. Hopefully, it will be tall and slender also.

[Future Mayor]

Originally Posted by Orlando

I think the straight $8 million is not enough and too generic to allow for compensation of multiple years of loss to other hotels. There must be something that I'm missing to understand how financially conservative congress members of Utah approved of this.

Also, I really doubt that we will see a developer step up anytime soon to build the mega hotel, when they still have to put up $300 million of their own financing for such a hotel in downtown SLC. But, maybe I'm wrong. I hope I'm wrong, and I hope that the people overseeing this project don't make the same mistakes of those who oversaw the cheaper expansions of the Salt Palace. Hopefully, their goal will be similar to the people that oversaw the development of the Salt Lake Library, where architecture and place was a big priority. I'd much rather see a hotel with some architectural finesse than a vanilla and stout box of a hotel. Hopefully, it will be tall and slender also.

Several sources have stated that there are already multiple developers that want to build the hotel and that they have simply been waiting for the convention space financing piece to be approved. Hopefully the developer will understand that they will get business with a Phx type boring vanilla box, simply because it is attached to or adjacent to the Salt Palace. However I would hope that they would look at in a way that if they build something several steps above a Phx that is tall, stylish and 🞵🞵🞵🞵 that they will get a lot more random visitors that stay there because it is "the place" the stay in downtown Salt Lake City.

I honestly expect many interested developers to respond to the rfp, and the deciding body, I'm assuming the county, will be able to select the one that gives them the most bang for their buck, the best location and the best design. I be surprised if we don't know a location, the brand and

[Future Mayor]

Originally Posted by Orlando

I think the straight $8 million is not enough and too generic to allow for compensation of multiple years of loss to other hotels. There must be something that I'm missing to understand how financially conservative congress members of Utah approved of this.

Also, I really doubt that we will see a developer step up anytime soon to build the mega hotel, when they still have to put up $300 million of their own financing for such a hotel in downtown SLC. But, maybe I'm wrong. I hope I'm wrong, and I hope that the people overseeing this project don't make the same mistakes of those who oversaw the cheaper expansions of the Salt Palace. Hopefully, their goal will be similar to the people that oversaw the development of the Salt Lake Library, where architecture and place was a big priority. I'd much rather see a hotel with some architectural finesse than a vanilla and stout box of a hotel. Hopefully, it will be tall and slender also.

Several sources have stated that there are already multiple developers that want to build the hotel and that they have simply been waiting for the convention space financing piece to be approved. Hopefully the developer will understand that they will get business with a Phx type boring vanilla box, simply because it is attached to or adjacent to the Salt Palace. However I would hope that they would look at in a way that if they build something several steps above a Phx that is tall, stylish and 🞵🞵🞵🞵 that they will get a lot more random visitors that stay there because it is "the place" the stay in downtown Salt Lake City.

I honestly expect many interested developers to respond to the rfp, and the deciding body, I'm assuming the county, will be able to select the one that gives them the most bang for their buck, the best location and the best design. I be surprised if we don't know a location, the brand and the basic design by the end of the year.

ajiuO while it could make the skyline a little lopsided, in the short term, depending on where it's located I am all for the CCH being the new tallest, and yes even by 50-100' over Wells Fargo. Depending on where the location is, it would have to be 100' taller than Wells Fagro to look like it's taller than the COB, due to
the N/S elevation loss from N. Temple south.

[ajiuO]

I will never consider salt lake a real city until we have at least 1 50 story building.. The 28-32 story thing is weak!

I'll never consider it a major city until we have at least 5 50 story buildings 1 needs to be over 80 and 1 over 60.. Not in my life :/

[ajiuO]

I kind a look at it like this... If the CCH is 50... It might make the church jealous... So maybe instead of doing a reclad of the office building and putting up a second tower... They'll just rip that chud down and put up a 65th story building... Preferably further south.

[Future Mayor]

Originally Posted by ajiuO

I will never consider salt lake a real city until we have at least 1 50 story building.. The 28-32 story thing is weak!

I'll never consider it a major city until we have at least 5 50 story buildings 1 needs to be over 80 and 1 over 60.. Not in my life :/

While I can see your point, I would honestly prefer 2 - 40 story buildings in place of 1 - 80 and 2 - 30's rather than 1 - 60. Considering there are only a total of 7 buildings at 80 stories or above in the entire U.S I don't EVER see an 80 in Salt Lake City.

While it would be a shorter skyline it would result in a more dense and wider skyline. Four substantial buildings would provide more street life, pedestrian traffic, in more areas of the city, providing for more retail and restaurant opportunities over a larger area. Yes I realize that in essence it's the same amount of people, but for example if say an 80 story building was built on Carl's Jr. The retail and restaurants that would result from that would probably span a block and a half in each direction. However if a 40 were built there and a 40 were built south of the new Questar building each would most likely result in a block of retail/restaurant in each direction. The same with the 60 vs 2-30's. I think the overall density and vibrancy of the city would be greater with the 4 buildings vs the 2.

Don't get me wrong, your opinion is completely justifiable, neither is the right or wrong way to do it, this is just a matter of taste and opinion. Trust me I'd be more than happy with a 60 story building.

In all reality though I see Salt Lake City being in the 2-3, 45-55 story building range in the next 30-40 years, with a spattering of 5-10 more in the 30-40 story range. I see that as a mix of both residential and commercial buildings. Even at the low end, 7 more buildings at 30-45 stories, has a tremendous impact on both the skyline and the urban fabric at the sidewalk level.

[Zionide]

Originally Posted by Future Mayor

Sorry Zionide part of that is incorrect. The Zion Curtain existed before the Private Club law was removed.

So while I fully agree that the Zion Curtain is a stupid law, in a way it was a compromise. Had MADD got what they wanted, we would have the curtain and other more strict liquor laws.

I never said it didn't exist before. I said the curtain was created [most recently] as a compromise after repealing the private club law---exactly as you said. The difference is that I said it was a compromise for the church, and you say it was for MADD.

But let's be honest: MADD pulls very little weight on the hill in comparison to the church.

[Future Mayor]

Originally Posted by Zionide

I never said it didn't exist before. I said the curtain was created [most recently] as a compromise after repealing the private club law---exactly as you said. The difference is that I said it was a compromise for the church, and you say it was for MADD.

But let's be honest: MADD pulls very little weight on the hill in comparison to the church.

Sorry, I misread your previous statement and didn't see the two dates you included, 2009 and 2010.

[wrendog]

Originally Posted by Future Mayor

Considering there are only a total of 7 buildings at 80 stories or above in the entire U.S I don't EVER see an 80 in Salt Lake City.

And, I think all 7 are in either NYC or Chicago

Instead of floor count, roof height is more important to me. I would like to see 1 700 footer, and 3 500+ footers in the next 30 years. Could be doable if we see a boom like Austin.

[Future Mayor]

Originally Posted by wrendog

And, I think all 7 are in either NYC or Chicago

You are correct Sir. Chicago 5, NYC 2.

[AllOutOfBubbleGum]

Originally Posted by scottharding

AllOutofBubbleGum, you say the Zion Curtain has "some benefits." I'm very interested to hear what you think those are, specifically.

[Wasatch_One]

Originally Posted by AllOutOfBubbleGum

[Skystruck]

Since we are dreaming tall today I stretched 111, really stretched 145 and put an approximately 50-60 story building on Carl's Jr! I honestly don't think this size of towers look that out of place.