Salt Lake City: Official Development News Thread - Part 4

[delts145]

Just curious, but is this project finally moving forward again...Anyone notice lately?
Construction ongoing at Abravanel Hall plaza

Deseret News

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865613038/Construction-ongoing-at-Abravanel-Hall-plaza.html

SALT LAKE CITY — Aerial photographs captured ongoing construction Monday at Abravanel Hall. Salt Lake County is turning the plaza near the
concert hall into an urban park.


Construction continues on the plaza at Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake City, Monday, Oct. 13, 2014. (Ravell Call, Deseret News)



(Ravell Call, Deseret News)


http://www.utahsymphony.org

[Merewether]

Originally Posted by delts145

Just curious, but is this project finally moving forward again...Anyone notice lately?

I am by that corner frequently and noted work there last week. But actual changes seem very slow.

[scottharding]

Yeah, I walk by it everyday as well. They're definitely working on it daily, but they do seem to be going pretty slow.

[s.p.hansen]

Originally Posted by delts145

LOL, Somebody needs to give S.P. some lovin.

Sorry I just keep getting blue balled by the State Street Rex Theater development. I need SOMETHING!

[blm3034L!fe]

Originally Posted by SLCdude

My first reaction to this image was: That's a beautiful building! Is that in Denver? Too bad Salt Lake can't have buildings like that.

My second reaction was: WHOAH! That's Salt Lake City!!!

Then I was like: WWHHOOAAHH!!! That's the eat-a-burger site.

and then I was like: This is a perfect development to compliment the
Regent Street redevelopment. The City HAS to let this happen!

and then I was like:

That is a great looking tower. Hopefully SLC sees it go up!

[delts145]

So, it sounds like Abravanel Plaza is at least moving forward, albeit slow. Did you guys notice if they're correcting the weird pathway entrances exits that they originally proposed?

Marvland, any more bits of info. you are able to share on the Peery?

Originally Posted by Marvland

The Peery Hotel just traded last week. It had been in receivership for over a year and under contract for six months. I've spoken to the new owners and they have plans to pump millions into improvements and land some major F&B action in the ground level retail spaces. They are a very experienced hotel turn-around operation and have done beautiful work in Phoenix and LA.

http://img1.10bestmedia.com


http://www.lobbymania.com


.

[delts145]

Originally Posted by s.p.hansen

Sorry I just keep getting blue balled by the State Street Rex Theater development. I need SOMETHING!

Focus on the Compilation Thread buddy. That helps put things in perspective. Sounds like someone with the cash is going to get a good deal on the La Porte/State St. Project. In many ways it reminds me a lot of that big Midtown Orem residential project. If it's current developer goes into some sort of receivership, then the numbers are likely to pencil out far more attractively for the future owner. It's unfortunate, but it often happens.

[TheWire]

Originally Posted by scottharding

Yeah, I walk by it everyday as well. They're definitely working on it daily, but they do seem to be going pretty slow.

FWIW, on my way to work this morning I passed by and there were 3 cement trucks and a pumper so hopefully we will see some progress sooner than later.

[UTPlanner]

This hotel proposal is the one I hinted about a couple of weeks ago.It has very strong support from the city's Administration and the RDA. I'm really hoping to see this move forward. The elevations turned out even better than I thought they would. I'm especially glad to see more downtown condo units. Currently, the market is dominated by City Creek and I think there is definitely a market for downtown living that do not want to live at City Creek for various reasons.

[scottharding]

Yeah, I've been saving my pennies to eventually buy a downtown condo or loft. I think I'll keep a closer eye on this one in particular...

[Wasatch Wasteland]

This is hands down my favorite building in Salt Lake City. (Yes, I know it's not built yet, but lets hope it does). It is the perfect combination of architecture from the 1900's and 1910's, as well as sleek modern. The result is a stunning, contemporary classic look.

I was also wondering, SLC got a handful of large towers from 1900 to the 1910's, but why are there none from the boom years of the 20's and 30's?

[slcskyline]

This is a random observation and I'm not sure which thread it belongs in, but I personally have always felt like Salt Lake City doesn't get the credit it deserves, partially because of how small the MSA is, after you remove both Ogden and Provo as separate MSA's. And I feel that it has a negative impact on SLC's development patterns and overall perception as a market nationally. So, I decided to investigate the actual numbers and see if I was just making stuff up, so here goes...

SLC ranks 26th in CSA vs. being the 48th largest MSA. That's a significant difference! I analyzed the top 50 CSA's. Salt Lake's CSA of 2,423,912 is 110% larger than its MSA population of 1,153,340. Only Harrisburg (121%) and Greensboro (118%) have a larger % discrepancy among the top 50 CSA's. For whatever it is worth, San Francisco/San Jose is the next highest at 87%.

Perhaps, even more telling (at least to me), is that from a raw population standpoint, the only cities that add more people than Salt Lake (1,270,572) adds when analyzing CSA vs. MSA are as follows:

Los Angeles: 5,288,068 (2)
San Francisco: 4,013,363 (5)
New York City: 3,539,839 (1)
Washington DC: 3,512,842 (4)
Boston: 3,367,414 (6)
Cleveland: 1,434,253 (16)

With the exception of Cleveland, those are all top 6 overall markets (ranking in parenthesis). The only other cities that add more than 1,000,000 people are Philadelphia (1,113,620) and Detroit (1,018,640), which are the 8th and 12th largest CSA's, respectively.

Several cities, including Phoenix, Austin, San Antonio and San Diego have the exact same size CSA as MSA.

It just seems like SLC suffers more than its fair share, when solely looking at MSA figures. I know we talk a lot about the unique cultural and demographic factors in the SLC market, but could this also be a contributing factor to perception and appetite from developers and companies looking at Salt Lake? I would be curious to hear everybody's thoughts on this.

[ToysNoiz]

Originally Posted by Wasatch Wasteland

This is hands down my favorite building in Salt Lake City. (Yes, I know it's not built yet, but lets hope it does). It is the perfect combination of architecture from the 1900's and 1910's, as well as sleek modern. The result is a stunning, contemporary classic look.

I was also wondering, SLC got a handful of large towers from 1900 to the 1910's, but why are there none from the boom years of the 20's and 30's?

Utah was hit hard during the depression. There wasn't enough money, or demand for highrises.

[s.p.hansen]

Originally Posted by ToysNoiz

Utah was hit hard during the depression. There wasn't enough money, or demand for highrises.

It was the depression and the death of the prominence of railroads.

Denver is a pretty great example of a city that was built tall from riches that came from the energy boom there in the 70s. When that boom went bust the city had tons of vacant space and unemployed people. (not anymore, but you see the evidence in the period where the skyline didn't change).

Salt Lake City was a railroad boomtown. When railroads were king 1/3 of the passengers had to pass through Salt Lake City to go west. Taxes on railroads and dead railroad millionaires built our first class education system in Salt Lake County in the early 20th century, it funded our capital building. Salt Lake City's streetcar system, which was way more extensive than most, was funded by investments from railroad owners already doing business in the city. The railroad dropped off a lot of wealth into our little burg and that's what made us so great. Post War that whole paradigm changed with better freeways, cars, and jet planes.

So in Salt Lake City you have a kind of mega depression that lasted into the late 50's.

[Your Boy Blue]

I love the proposed Regent Street hotel. I think it's size for that location is perfect...smaller footprint and increased height. I really hope the additional height gets approved.

Quite frankly, we need more mid-block buildings with some height. I was driving north on 300 W today and was stopped at a light at 500 S. I was looking at the gap between 99 West and the Beneficial Financial Tower (Gateway Tower West) and it looked ridiculous. If a person didn't know any better they would think those two buildings were on opposite corners two or three blocks apart, when in fact, they are on the same block.

In reality, the hotel will be on the corner of a normal sized block, so hopefully nothing hangs up the increased height.

It is also a first for Salt Lake (that I can think of) to have a mixed use building with hotel and condos (someone correct me if I'm wrong). I think that part is great.

I'm with Scott Harding...I'm curious to see what the condos will be priced at because I wouldn't mind living there myself.

[ctobsl]

Everyone keeps talking about additional height. Are they going to add additional floors to what we are seeing in the rendering, or is that the final plan?

[airhero]

^^^What we're seeing in the rendering has the additional height being discussed. At 330 feet the building would exceed the height allowed by zoning for the midblock segment. The planning commission must approve the additional height beyond that which zoning allows.

[Merewether]

[IMG]http://[url=https://flic.kr/p/uHA2Ft][/url]image by duckbay, on Flickr[/IMG]

Photo I took today showing state of Abravanal Plaza. Earlier they were pouring concrete next to Hall's entrance.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/23283802@N05/shares/b3530h

[Twothirty8]

Such beautiful concrete planters Abravanel is getting!!! I can't wai for the concrete walkways, maybe they'll be stamped even!!! Does no one in SLC have a sense of design or a desire to build with materials that last? I'm going to start a cobblestone company and force the damn city to use my materials on every single project from here on out. Anyone want in? Just think, SLC could like maybe look like some quaint cosmopolitan Euro city. 🞵🞵🞵🞵.

[Future Mayor]

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