Listened to an interesting “The Daily” podcast on why many buildings in San Francisco downtown remain empty post pandemic. In one word -Tech. San Francisco built their entire downtown on tech (coders). More than any other industry, the tech industry has embraced remote work following the pandemic. A quote from the podcast -“coders do not need a cubicle to write code”. This is so true. I’m a coder and most my coworkers are. None of us have returned to our downtown office in SLC. We are different from other industries that need to congregate in an office. Our production has increased with remote work with less distractions. You can imagine if you’re writing code that socializing and lots of meetings is a distraction. Coders are like a writer of a novel. You need a sanctuary without distractions where you can focus. The high paid tech industry in San Francisco caused rent and home prices to soar in San Francisco, pushing service workers out of San Francisco - leading to even more vacancy. Any urban planner should look closely at San Francisco as a lesson on what not to do. They threw all their coins in one bucket - Tech. Tech workers are not going back to the office anytime soon, unless they are forced. Building more housing seems to be the future of downtowns. And building space for industries that need to be in the office, not Tech.
Lehi and Draper have been built to support tech offices, so my guess is that their office vacancies have taken an even bigger hit than downtown, especially with all of the layoffs recently. It's too bad that the new built environment of these areas is so single-use and car-oriented.
Downtown SLC has never really been a big tech/software hub and maybe that will turn out to be a good thing. There's a pretty diverse mix of office uses downtown. Bankers, lawyers, real estate developers, administrators, etc. The city has also recently been targeting medical and biotech industries with the Tech Lake City initiative, uses which often entail both offices and laboratory space. It seems like that has been paying off with the various new Granary office/lab buildings that are planned.
Ironically, as I say this, a downtown SLC video game developer (Avalanche Software) is in the international spotlight for developing the new, well-received Harry Potter video game.
Lehi and Draper have been built to support tech offices, so my guess is that their office vacancies have taken an even bigger hit than downtown, especially with all of the layoffs recently. It's too bad that the new built environment of these areas is so single-use and car-oriented.
Downtown SLC has never really been a big tech/software hub and maybe that will turn out to be a good thing. There's a pretty diverse mix of office uses downtown. Bankers, lawyers, real estate developers, administrators, etc. The city has also recently been targeting medical and biotech industries with the Tech Lake City initiative, uses which often entail both offices and laboratory space. It seems like that has been paying off with the various new Granary office/lab buildings that are planned.
Ironically, as I say this, a downtown SLC video game developer (Avalanche Software) is in the international spotlight for developing the new, well-received Harry Potter video game.
SLC downtown having a diverse assortment of uses is a strength we should keep building on. Also think all the residential development whether intentional or not is great. More people living downtown will add to the vibrancy more than some tech industries that may or may not lease an office space long term. Overall I feel SLC downtown is set up well for the future
The Great Salt Lake "strike team" released their report today with findings about water use and options for saving the lake. You can read the Report PDF here.
Lehi and Draper have been built to support tech offices, so my guess is that their office vacancies have taken an even bigger hit than downtown, especially with all of the layoffs recently. It's too bad that the new built environment of these areas is so single-use and car-oriented.
Downtown SLC has never really been a big tech/software hub and maybe that will turn out to be a good thing. There's a pretty diverse mix of office uses downtown. Bankers, lawyers, real estate developers, administrators, etc. The city has also recently been targeting medical and biotech industries with the Tech Lake City initiative, uses which often entail both offices and laboratory space. It seems like that has been paying off with the various new Granary office/lab buildings that are planned.
Ironically, as I say this, a downtown SLC video game developer (Avalanche Software) is in the international spotlight for developing the new, well-received Harry Potter video game.
While SLC office use is more diverse, downtown SLC has always had a LOT of tech jobs. The Silicon Slopes website used to list all tech employers in the state on a map with number of employees per employer and there were always more tech employees downtown than in Lehi. I suspect that's actually why they removed the map. It's just more obvious in Lehi because all the buildings are newly built.
For anyone interested I am hearing SLC hosting the 2030 games is becoming more likely. Sapporo is at 60% public oppostions currently and their bid is in turmoil. There is some chance Stockholm will throw itself into the ring but that is unsure right now. We are only 7 years out now so hopefully the IOC doesn't keep dragging its feet. LA 2028 and domestic sponsorships remains the biggest hurdle and the reason we haven't already been awarded the games. It's seems the IOC wants us to host 34 but may have no choice but to give us 30.
For anyone interested I am hearing SLC hosting the 2030 games is becoming more likely. Sapporo is at 60% public oppostions currently and their bid is in turmoil. There is some chance Stockholm will throw itself into the ring but that is unsure right now. We are only 7 years out now so hopefully the IOC doesn't keep dragging its feet. LA 2028 and domestic sponsorships remains the biggest hurdle and the reason we haven't already been awarded the games. It's seems the IOC wants us to host 34 but may have no choice but to give us 30.
I read somewhere there is also another joint bid of both Italy and Switzerland in the works.
I have a few ideas, feel free to correct my errors or logic. Some of my ideas are more realistic then others. I’ll start with the easy ones first.
Conservation, there are all types of ways we can conserve. One rather simple conservation method we could apply to agricultural is to limit their watering times. Apparently farmers have blocks of times they are allowed to water. (Please feel free to add facts and times if you have them). Some of these farmers have a time slot in the heat of the day when we know most of the water is lost to evaporation. I see hay and alfalfa fields watered all summer long in the heat of the day and I think this should be an easy change. We need to shorten each block of watering time and prohibit watering during the hours of 10am-6pm, or something along those lines. This may require watering infrastructure changes to make this work within reason, but this is a realistic change to use water in an effective/efficient manor.
Another idea that I’m sure is already being mulled over is expanding the central Utah water project and other small projects that can move water from one watershed to the Wasatch front watershed. I don’t really know the ins and outs of water rights but it is my understanding that we don’t use all our Colorado river water rights. Perhaps we could use/move some of our Colorado river water towards the Wasatch front. I believe the Central Utah water project does this already and hopefully we can move more from the Unitas towards the GSL.
I think a long shot would be to move some water from the Snake River towards the GSL but that would definitely be the most difficult legally, politically and most expensive. Anyway, I’d really like to hear some other options that people may have had.
that will be a cold day in hell...Idaho Oregon and Washington are not giving you shit from the snake river.. u can bet on that...water rights are big thing here.. I assure you utah is not part of or ever will be a part that equation even if you try to involve the federal government to get your hands on it.. it would be civil war level disaster and people here have more guns than you!
I think the tower will rise still. The less likely one to rise is the Sundial. I emailed JLL about the Sundial and they said construction will begin in 2024.
Building Salt Lake said in October that the tower should still rise. https://buildingsaltlake.com/status-...sundial-tower/
"Sundial pre-leasing will determine market feasibility of the project" that does not sound too promising to me. I do feel better about apartment oriented projects still moving ahead.
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February 7th
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