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Posted Sep 13, 2008, 10:58 AM
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Downtown Los Angeles
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Downtown - Trolley Square Renovation and Expansion - New Chapter for Trolley - Mall will re-emerge with new face in November as other revamp work continues
By Paul Beebe
The Salt Lake Tribune
Okland Construction employees Cary Davis, left, and Leo Newbold discuss the progress of construction at Trolley Square last week. (Jim Urquhart/The Salt Lake Tribune )
Modernization of the main building of the Trolley Square shopping mall should be finished around Nov. 1, in time for the start of the holiday shopping season.
The aged building, which began life as a trolley car barn in 1909, will also celebrate its 100th birthday about the same time, said Tom Bard, a principal of Portland, Ore.-based ScanlanKemperBard Cos., which bought Trolley Square two years ago.
On other fronts, a two-level underground parking garage is nearly complete. The garage will replace the old above-ground parking structure on the west end of Trolley Square.
After the new garage is opened in November, work will shift to the east side of the property, where a 53,000-square-foot Whole Foods grocery store will be constructed. It's set to open in two years.
Construction work continues at Trolley Square in Salt Lake City. Trolley Square is undergoing $60 million modernization project, much of which will be completed by Nov. 1. (Jim Urquhart/The Salt Lake Tribune )
"We haven't set the specific date [for the centennial celebration], but with things coming together with the completion of the garage and the starting of construction of Whole Foods, we will be announcing some festivities," Bard said.
Renovation of the Mission-style main building began in April 2007. One of the first orders of business was to make the 160,000-square-foot building less forbidding. A profusion of skylights installed in the roof allow more natural light to spread through the shadowy interior.
Service corridors that ended in scary cul-de-sacs with no exits were
eliminated, allowing shoppers to stroll easily through the building and giving tenants room to add more floor space.
The Pottery Barn, one of Trolley's anchor tenants, will double in size, to 22,000 square feet. Another anchor, Williams Sonoma, is increasing its space by 20 percent, to 8,000 square feet.
A glass-encased elevator under construction in the center court ended the need for an old escalator on the building's east end. New stairs were constructed on both the east and west ends.
On the west end of the upper floor, a large mechanical room was removed. Less-obvious seismic and electrical upgrades will ensure the life of the building for years, Bard said. Some of the natural light illuminates brick pavers on the ground floor whose hues had been dulled by decades of wax applications.
"It is going to be fabulous when it's finished, and I think they are really going to attract a lot of good stores," said Cathy Kirkpatrick, owner of The Secret Garden, a children's clothing store that has been in Trolley Square since 1998. "It's a very unique, historical place, and there are not many places like that."
The project has a $60 million budget, which will also fund construction of two new retail buildings and an expansion of the existing Restoration Hardware building on the north side of the Trolley Square property. Those projects will be finished next spring.
An old trolley car converted into a wings and beer pub restaurant. One of Trolley Square locals favorites. Look for a rowdy crowd for televised sporting events.
All three will be built atop the underground garage. A 7,000-square-foot building will be constructed on the south end of the garage. A 12,000-square-foot structure tacked onto the Restoration Hardware building will sit above the north end of the garage. In the middle will be a 15,000-square-foot structure.
The roof of the underground garage will serve as the floor of all three projects, Bard said.
Similarly, the Whole Foods building on the northeast corner of 500 South and 700 West will be the base of a parking structure, with two floors above the store.
Beautiful shade trees line the many sidewalks of the Trolley Square area.
"I just think what the new owners are doing is going to be so much better for shoppers," said mall manager Dawn Kotter, who has worked at Trolley Square since 1992 and seen its ups and downs.
The mall has 25 tenants. Many have moved to better or bigger locations from other parts of the main building.
It's unclear how many tenants will be at the mall next year, when all of the construction will be done, with the exception of Whole Foods, which should open in March 2010.
Salt Lake City's Hard Rock Cafe, located on 500 South entrance to Trolley Square Mall. An old standby that's very busy on weekends but offers plenty of room to relax during the week and for lunches.
Williams Sonoma, where Salt Lake City comes for cooking gadgets and great gift ideas. Come during Christmas for tasty treats and samples of their goods. Call for scheduled events or cooking instruction.
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Last edited by delts145; Sep 13, 2008 at 11:25 AM.
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