Salt Lake City: Official Development News Thread - Part 5

[UTPlanner]

The Kensington Tower and Lofts on 4th groups haven't even applied for building permits so I wouldn't plan on seeing any significant work on the sites for a while. Keep in mind when a developer applies for Design Review approval, generally the designers don't have a complete design package and the building plans haven't been fully engineered. They don't want to pay the significant costs to finish the design package until they get the "go ahead" from the city. Finishing up plans takes time and the larger, more complex projects can take several months.

[Orlando]

What project are you guys referring to?

[Waimea]

Originally Posted by Orlando

What project are you guys referring to?

I believe they’re referring to the proposed development on 800 S and 200 W, across from where the Sushi Burrito is.

[Reeder113]

Originally Posted by Atlas

First signs of glass on the CCH!



Source

OOooooh, that glass looks fantastic!

[Blah_Amazing]

https://www.ksl.com/article/50117929...n-utah-in-2021

[delts145]

Originally Posted by Blah_Amazing

In other unsurprising news, Sugarmont Apartments' opening date has been moved back again (for like the 7th time (remember, it was supposed to open back in 2019)) from April 2021 to to June 2021.
https://www.sugarmontapartments.com/

This has to be one of the most often delayed under construction projects we have had recent times.

Those who pass by The Sugarmont. Is it still under a lot of wrapping, or are you actually able to see exterior progress now, particularly on the front street side? Also, how is progress on one of our favorite projects,(Sugar Alley) coming along? We haven't had any photo updates on Sugar Alley since December.

[locolife]

Originally Posted by nushiof

There's a backhoe and a Dominion Energy truck at the Kensington site this morning. Not sure if it has anything to do with the upcoming groundbreaking. Is Kensington still on track to break ground in this June?

I’m getting the feeling that projects are falling behind, I’ve heard rumors of increased labor and material costs but don’t directly work in this field so I can’t confirm. Things just feel slow...

[Waimea]

Originally Posted by locolife

I’m getting the feeling that projects are falling behind, I’ve heard rumors of increased labor and material costs but don’t directly work in this field so I can’t confirm. Things just feel slow...

Agree. I also think another factor is office space demand has been cut to near 50% (if not more) of what it was and I don’t ever see it bouncing back to the 2019 levels. Not to be pessimistic but I would not be surprised to see Kensington, the proposed tower on state street, and a few others to never come to fruition. The only reason I think projects such as the CCH, 95 State, etc. happened is because they started construction before this scamdemic (I mean pandemic) happened. The funds were in place and maybe even pre occupancy had filled up the tower enough, and simply the ball was already rolling on those projects. Hope I’m wrong but time will tell.

[Atlas]

Originally Posted by Waimea

Agree. I also think another factor is office space demand has been cut to near 50% (if not more) of what it was and I don’t ever see it bouncing back to the 2019 levels. Not to be pessimistic but I would not be surprised to see Kensington, the proposed tower on state street, and a few others to never come to fruition. The only reason I think projects such as the CCH, 95 State, etc. happened is because they started construction before this scamdemic (I mean pandemic) happened. The funds were in place and maybe even pre occupancy had filled up the tower enough, and simply the ball was already rolling on those projects. Hope I’m wrong but time will tell.

Material and labor costs aside, while office and hotel demand definitely took a hit, residential demand has never been higher in SLC. I don't think we have many reasons to be pessimistic about Kensington at this point, and the hotel market will surely recover. Office space is a different story but, for SLC, that only really puts the West Quarter Phase II office tower and 650 Main Phase II (and the Hardware Station office building?) in an existential crisis. Almost all of our other big projects are residential.

It's also worth pointing out that we have had groundbreakings of Moda Luxe and 255 S. State just in the last month or so.

EDIT: here's 255 S State right now. It's so nice to see activity at this site.

[Makid]

Housing projects will still move forward. There is such a housing crisis along the Wasatch Front and definitely around Downtown SLC that it would take adding nearly 2,500 units a month for 3 years straight to have any meaningful impact on the vacancy rates and the increase housing values.

I don't think people realize just how bad the crisis is. It is estimated that we need nearing 60,000 units just for the demand today and this demand keeps increasing as the population grows.

Office space is still going to be needed. I think that we will actually see an increase in office space over the next 10 years. Multiple large companies have been letting their employees know that they will begin returning to the office later this year.

Additionally, many companies are looking at increasing their office space needs. Prior to COVID it wouldn't be uncommon to see lease ranges of between 75 and 150 sq ft per employee. Since COVID, companies have been pushing closer towards an average of 200 sq ft per employee.

This means that if a company shifts 50% of their employees to full time working at home, they will still be maxing out their current space or needing additional space for their in office employees.

The issue is that the 50% work from home employee number is optimistic. A poll of major companies across the country has shown that they plan to bring at least 80% of their employees back to the office full time.

This means that over the next 10 years, we could see multiple companies working towards doubling their square footage.

[bob rulz]

I think office space might take a little bit longer, but as I said before, I have my doubts that the work from home revolution will be as widespread as people say. Companies will want their people back in offices, at least most of them most of the time. I imagine more flexibility will be allowed in work from home and it will of course be company specific, but there is something important lost when everything is work from home imo

Then again I could be totally wrong. I don't really know how corporate people think.

Kensington is an all-residential project, so it will go forward.

[Atlas]

I checked on the Main Street Apartments page on the city portal on a whim and it looks like they've been working with the city and submitting revised proposals. There's a new document from yesterday that has some new renderings and details:

[ThePusherMan]

Originally Posted by Waimea

Agree. I also think another factor is office space demand has been cut to near 50% (if not more) of what it was and I don’t ever see it bouncing back to the 2019 levels. Not to be pessimistic but I would not be surprised to see Kensington, the proposed tower on state street, and a few others to never come to fruition. The only reason I think projects such as the CCH, 95 State, etc. happened is because they started construction before this scamdemic (I mean pandemic) happened. The funds were in place and maybe even pre occupancy had filled up the tower enough, and simply the ball was already rolling on those projects. Hope I’m wrong but time will tell.

If the pandemic is fake why wouldn’t offices return to full capacity? You can’t have it both ways.

[Blah_Amazing]

https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics...ation-package/

Legislators add language urging the hiring of Utah firms and residents to tackle the construction projects.

By Bryan Schott | March 3, 2021

The Utah Senate made short work of the $1.23 billion transportation funding bill on Wednesday, making it clear they want that money to go to Utah companies and Utah workers.

When first proposed, HB433 was a massive $2.26 billion package, which included $1.4 billion in borrowing through bonds to fund many transportation projects, but Senate Republicans were uneasy with that gargantuan amount of debt.

Eventually, House and Senate leaders settled on a much smaller amount to borrow, just $264 million. That smaller dollar amount is coupled with a slight increase in one-time money to fund a number of transit and transportation projects, including the long-discussed project to double-track portions of the FrontRunner commuter rail.

The revamped package avoids borrowing more than $1 billion by extending the timeline for the completion of several construction projects. That extra year will allow the state to fund those projects through the Transportation Investment Fund.

“The amount of things we’re going to be able to accomplish with this bill is pretty amazing,” said Sen. Scott Sandall, R-Tremonton. “We’re doing it with a very minimal amount of bonding that allows us to still tackle a number of projects.”

As previously reported, the bill includes a little more than $100 million dollars to create the new Utah Raptor and Lost Creek state parks plus addressing backlogged maintenance and other enhancements at existing state parks. But, that money was already appropriated from another account by lawmakers in last week’s budget proposal.

The bill also turns an eye to future transportation projects to reduce congestion in the Cottonwood canyons. Once the Utah Department of Transportation decides the best way forward in the canyons, that plan will be paid for out of the newly-created Cottonwood Canyons Transportation Investment Fund. The eventual solution could include widening the road in Little Cottonwood Canyon, a cog railroad or even a proposed gondola.

A substitute version of the bill provided a mechanism for shifting money into the new fund, up to $20 million total. A previous version did not fund future construction in the canyon.

Legislators also added intent language that urges using Utah-based companies and workers for the hundreds of millions of dollars in transportation projects.

“This bill means jobs for Utah companies and Utah workers,” said Senate Minority Leader Karen Mayne, D-West Valley City.

The proposal needs one more vote in the House before heading to Gov. Spencer Cox for his signature.

[Blah_Amazing]

https://kutv.com/news/local/utah-nam...g-market-in-us

by McKenzie StaufferWednesday, March 3rd 2021

(KUTV) — The Beehive state is looking like a great place to a buy home or a sell a home.

Bankrate.com reports the Utah housing market was on fire before the pandemic, but now, it’s even hotter.

Dave Robison, president of the Utah Association of Realtors, told Bankrate.com “it’s insane.”

Utah boasts among the nation’s strongest pace of job growth, along with low unemployment, low mortgage rates, few mortgage delinquencies and low state and local taxes, according to the website.

All of these factors put Utah in first place on Bankrate’s Housing Heat Index for the fourth quarter of 2020.

KUTV 2News did not commission or participate in this study and could not verify its results or findings.

The website states: "[Utah's] home values jumped 15.4% in the 12-month period that ended Dec. 31, third-best among U.S. states, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Utah posted the second-strongest job growth in the nation from December 2019 to December 2020, according to a Bankrate analysis of Labor Department data. And its tax burden is among the lowest in the nation, according to the Tax Foundation."

Montana, Idaho and Arizona ranked second, fourth and sixth on the index.

[Blah_Amazing]

Originally Posted by Waimea

Agree. I also think another factor is office space demand has been cut to near 50% (if not more) of what it was and I don’t ever see it bouncing back to the 2019 levels. Not to be pessimistic but I would not be surprised to see Kensington, the proposed tower on state street, and a few others to never come to fruition. The only reason I think projects such as the CCH, 95 State, etc. happened is because they started construction before this scamdemic (I mean pandemic) happened. The funds were in place and maybe even pre occupancy had filled up the tower enough, and simply the ball was already rolling on those projects. Hope I’m wrong but time will tell.

I disagree, particularly for downtown SLC. I used to be super pessimistic about the economic impact of this very real pandemic. However, Utah has proven itself to be extremely resilient over the past year. We are already back to 'full employment' and with most people set to be vaccinated in the next 90 days or so, the crisis is about over.

I also am optimistic about downtown office space. With so much population growth recently, both in Utah in general and in the downtown area, that will likely push demand for downtown office space longer term. I have seen many reports also indicate that future office space will see employees more spread out, therefore increasing the overall need for square footage. Utah has also not seen the corporate bankruptcies or mass office exoduses that some other states have seen and is therefore starting off from a much better position.

I also think the vast majority of people and companies do not want to work fully at home. Some do, which will change the market a bit. But many homes and apartments are not well equipped for at home work spaces. The more we see construction of micro units or smaller apartments as well, the more likely those people will not want to work in their small spaces. Again we will see, but with things set (as of now) to return back to normal by June or so, we should have a much clearer understanding of the future of the market by then.

[Atlas]

I agree that office demand will rebound but probably not to full pre-pandemic levels (on a per-employee basis), but I do think something like 80% back-to-the-office is possible in some areas. Makid makes a good point that there are a lot of other variables at play and Utah is growing quickly, so we may actually see an uptick at the end of the day. This is all very uncertain though, so I personally wouldn't bet on large-scale office projects in the short term.

I alluded to the Hardware Station project in a previous post. Has anyone heard about that since 2016? Was that one dead even before the pandemic?

Originally Posted by bob_rulz

I imagine more flexibility will be allowed in work from home and it will of course be company specific, but there is something important lost when everything is work from home imo

Totally agree with this.

[Blah_Amazing]

Commercial building permits for both Izzy South and Izzy North have been filed.

Izzy South
Project Description:
Izzy South Multifamily
72 Unit Multifamily building that is over a parking podium with 58 parking stalls. Overall project SF is 62,899. Construction type is type II-B for the S2 and type V-B for the R2.
https://citizenportal.slcgov.com/Cit...howInspection=

Izzy North
Project Description:
Izzy North Multifamily
64 Unit Multifamily building that is over a parking podium with 56 parking stalls. Overall project SF is 62,899. Construction type is type II-B for the S2 and type V-B for the R2.
https://citizenportal.slcgov.com/Cit...howInspection=

[SLCPolitico]

Originally Posted by delts145

Well, it looks like they'll be demolishing the north annex pretty soon, but there's no word as to what if anything will replace it immediately. They'll probably use it as extra parking and landscape it for the time being.

The Legislature just appropriated $30 million toward the construction of the "Capitol Hill North Building," as well as intent language in the appropriations bill for the Facilities Division to use any cash left over from the new prison toward the project (though I'm not sure how much that would be). That being said, I have no idea what the timeline is on demolition or construction.

[downtownslcresident]

Originally Posted by Waimea

Agree. I also think another factor is office space demand has been cut to near 50% (if not more) of what it was and I don’t ever see it bouncing back to the 2019 levels. Not to be pessimistic but I would not be surprised to see Kensington, the proposed tower on state street, and a few others to never come to fruition. The only reason I think projects such as the CCH, 95 State, etc. happened is because they started construction before this scamdemic (I mean pandemic) happened. The funds were in place and maybe even pre occupancy had filled up the tower enough, and simply the ball was already rolling on those projects. Hope I’m wrong but time will tell.

Clearly your friends and family haven’t died.