Salt Lake City: Official Development News Thread - Part 5

[Marvland]

Originally Posted by airhero

Also, the Patrinely development will include 600,000 sq ft when completed. That is enough for Amazon's first phase (which calls for 500,000+). Patrinely already planned for this to be tech space. I wasn't even thinking Amazon would want to lease space. I assumed they owned all their buildings in Seattle. Seems like yet another win for south downtown, if Patrinely is on board. I can't imagine that they wouldn't be.

But I'm still stuck on the 100 acres thing. I just don't get it.

Yeah that's the dream. Also, they could easily double the height of that project and phase the site out for 1m plus sf over time. I can't remember who mentioned earlier that Little America is overdue for a redo. Seems like the Holdings have done more deals after Earl passed away and that's an incredible parcel.

[Liberty Wellsian]

Originally Posted by airhero

Yeah the North Temple corridor isn't exactly greenfield. I keep trying to justify the 400 S Main area, but 100 acres is a lot. Getting Ken Garff, Mark Miller, and the Sears lot involved, you're up to about 50-60 acres total, but then there are a lot of parties involved, and I'm not sure the car dealerships are keen on moving. Where could they possibly move? Maybe Rio Grande area could work. UTA owns a lot of land around those parcels. I shot it down earlier but there is a lot of land to build, though not 100 acres. Would probably involve some cleanup of the parcels.

Salt Lake simply doesn't have large swaths of land that big ready to be built on. I didn't think lack of contiguous parking lots would ever be a problem for SLC. Lots of cities have them right near their urban cores. Denver has at least 100 acres right next to their downtown. Not a bad place, imo, though it would require some serious infrastructure improvements. Speer is a mess as it is. You can't direct all Amazon traffic in that direction.

Also, that is all great news Makid. Not so much the convention stuff, since there still seems to be a lot to work out, but I can't believe how low the vacancy rates are, especially with all the new apartments that have come online.

The fleet block is 8 acres. you could probably come up with a bunch in that area. Add a Trax line from 9th and 9th to Indiana ave. 50-60 acres in the south part of downtown. 40-50 in the Granary district.

[airhero]

Originally Posted by San Diego-Honolulu

Salt Lake City isn't getting the Amazon second headquarters. You all know this and need to be realistic with yourselves. Move on from this pipe dream. It's most likely going to Denver, Atlanta, or Austin.

If the airport is so important like you say, why would it go to Austin? I'm not sure Austin could handle it anyway. Their infrastructure is already way behind and their transit is lacking greatly. I'm not sure most Austonians would even want it.

I'm aware of Salt Lake's chances of getting hq2 but I'm going to keep talking about it anyway.

[FullCircle]

I entirely agree with some of the outsiders posting here that SLC is a long shot for the amazon campus, but it's a hell of a lot better to speculate about that possibility than it is to argue about homelessness, religion, city versus suburbs, etc that normally occupies the majority of this thread (I acknowledge my guilt in that matter).
It's true they said they only need a metro of 1 million people, but I still think we are pretty small for that large of a workforce. I don't have the numbers, but wouldn't 8 million square feet basically double the amount of office space downtown? I realize that it is a phased increase in office and workforce, but that's still a huge increase, proportionally, to the existing metro. I also think long term, and it seems a bit sketchy to have one employer account for that large of the employment in an area. Imagine how wrecked SLC would be if Amazon did choose SLC, built a campus, then left. When Associated Foods built what is now the Wells Fargo tower, then moved to Boise, that building was largely vacant for a long time and little to no new office was constructed for many years. Having one company responsible for such a large fraction of a downtown is a fragile situation. I mean, right now Amazon is perfect and it's hard to imagine their business model failing, but people thought the same thing about Sears and other huge department stores that are now struggling. According to a quick google search, the only employers in the state larger than 20,000 employees are IHC, UofU, and the State itself. Those are institutional and healthcare, and unlikely to go anywhere anytime soon, businesses come and go. 50,000 employees from one company is huge, and therefore fragile.
Given all that, it would still be amazing if it did happen. I think SLC is close on their wishlist. I'll echo a few others that have said, how many cities in this country have 100 acres of greenfield close to an urban core just hanging out waiting to be developed? In the suburbs or periphery, sure, but not also fulfilling some of their other requirements. You could probably get 100 acres of brownfield in some rust belt cities that could be redeveloped. I guess it's what their "ideal" site would be; they probably know they won't get 100% of what they're looking for, it's just an ideal to shoot for.

[delts145]

I too agree that Salt Lake City is a long shot, but I would wager that if they do whittle it down to a top ten finalist list, Salt Lake will be in there. Also, good point FullCircle about putting too many eggs in one basket. As far as Salt Lake only being a metro of a little over a million, I think it will most likely be promoted as a greater metro of around 2.6 million. The Southern CSA talent pool will definitely play a big role in Amazon even considering the Wasatch Front as a finalist.

[Utah_Dave]

Originally Posted by delts145

I too agree that Salt Lake City is a long shot, but I would wager that if they do whittle it down to a top ten finalist list, Salt Lake will be in there. Also, good point FullCircle about putting too many eggs in one basket. As far as Salt Lake only being a metro of a little over a million, I think it will most likely be promoted as a greater metro of around 2.6 million. The Southern CSA talent pool will definitely play a big role in Amazon even considering the Wasatch Front as a finalist.

I think we all agree Salt lake is a long shot for Amazon. But I would argue our population will quickly grow to numbers that could support a project of that size. Particularly when you consider that the project is not 8,000,000 sqft of office space and 50,000 employees on day one. I see that goal as a 10-20 year project for Amazon roughly.

On another note, I heard on the Radio this morning the the local governments continue to work with the developer to find a location, and I assume a hotel chain, for the CCH. I get the feel it's not dead, just another lengthy delay

Fingers crossed for that project... it also put the rooms at 700-800

[asies1981]

Provo and Salt Lake come is 2nd and 14th respectively on best metros for Millennials. Salt Lake's score is lower because of housing affordability.

[Orlando]

Here's some development news!! ...sort of

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/...wntown-SL.html

[ajiuO]

Originally Posted by Utah_Dave

I think we all agree Salt lake is a long shot for Amazon. But I would argue our population will quickly grow to numbers that could support a project of that size. Particularly when you consider that the project is not 8,000,000 sqft of office space and 50,000 employees on day one. I see that goal as a 10-20 year project for Amazon roughly.

On another note, I heard on the Radio this morning the the local governments continue to work with the developer to find a location, and I assume a hotel chain, for the CCH. I get the feel it's not dead, just another lengthy delay

Fingers crossed for that project... it also put the rooms at 700-800

Wasn’t it supposed to be 1000-1200 at one point? Wonder if we will ever get a 40 story building. Kinda seems like Regent and APS are also dead projects... although APS and CCH might have been one in the same. I wonder how much the bear ears thing had to do with all of this.

[ajiuO]

So I was walking down regent street yesterday and realized somthing.... it’s been open for like a year or more now, and not a single one of the spaces in the base of the parking garage have been leased. I was hoping someone would at least put a restaurant in the building on the corner, but no go. CCC has never been fully leased though, so I guess it’s not a huge surprise.

They really need to do somthing more inspiring with the open plaza area on regent street. It is dreadfully bland and boaring. First off they need to do somthing with the back side of the walker center parking... perhaps a nice green wall or a mural or somthing. Then they should put a fountain, trees, tables, and places to sit in there.... then maybe string nice lights up above regent street like they have between brio and Cheesecake Factory.

[Liberty Wellsian]

Originally Posted by Utah_Dave

I think we all agree Salt lake is a long shot for Amazon. But I would argue our population will quickly grow to numbers that could support a project of that size. Particularly when you consider that the project is not 8,000,000 sqft of office space and 50,000 employees on day one. I see that goal as a 10-20 year project for Amazon roughly.

On another note, I heard on the Radio this morning the the local governments continue to work with the developer to find a location, and I assume a hotel chain, for the CCH. I get the feel it's not dead, just another lengthy delay

Fingers crossed for that project... it also put the rooms at 700-800

Agreed. 500k square feet is 1/16th of 8 million. if we apply that 1/16th to the 50k claimed jobs we are only talking about a little over 3k to start. Let's say it is 5k. Would 5k jobs and another 45k over the next 10 years overwhelm the Wasatch front; No, it wouldn't. It would be a boon and would likely support the recent trend toward increased in-migration but it would not overwhelm our labor force.

Originally Posted by asies1981

Provo and Salt Lake come is 2nd and 14th respectively on best metros for Millennials. Salt Lake's score is lower because of housing affordability.

little thing

The nation's share of young adults has not grown, not when looking at a generational time frame. It seems appropriate to look at it on a generational scale when discussing generations. Despite being the largest generation in History the millenials still represent a much smaller share of the population than say when the boomers were young. 65 million is a much larger share of around 200 million than 75 is of over 300. The line in your article that says that the nation's share of young adults has increased leaves us with a false impression of a population that is getting younger while in truth the opposite is true, even in Utah.

Also I looked at the apartment list "study". I'm pretty sure millenials weren't 18-34 in both 2005 and 2015. If we want to know where millenials are going to and where they are leaving we should probably look at the number of 8-24 year olds in 2005 and compare that to 18-34 in 2015.

[Comrade]

One Utah Center under construction in the movie Rubin and Ed, which starred Crispin Glover.

[bob rulz]

Originally Posted by San Diego-Honolulu

Salt Lake City isn't getting the Amazon second headquarters. You all know this and need to be realistic with yourselves. Move on from this pipe dream. It's most likely going to Denver, Atlanta, or Austin.

You're right, we should go back to talking about the homeless, religion, and the value of suburbs vs inner cities. That's worked out great for us in the past!

Of course it's a longshot, nobody here is pretending otherwise, but at least it's discussion about something tangible.

[DCRes]

Originally Posted by Comrade

One Utah Center under construction in the movie Rubin and Ed, which starred Crispin Glover.

Nice find! The Walker Center looks so much better with the Walker sign back on top. It looked so stubby without it

[wrendog]

Originally Posted by Comrade

One Utah Center under construction in the movie Rubin and Ed, which starred Crispin Glover.

Rubin and Ed is freaking amazing.

[ajiuO]

Originally Posted by Comrade

One Utah Center under construction in the movie Rubin and Ed, which starred Crispin Glover.

Love the new avatar... favorite movie of the year so far.

[SL,UT]

I hope Amazon doesn't build their 2nd HQ here. Could you imagine how much rent would go up because of that?

[Stenar]

Originally Posted by SL,UT

I hope Amazon doesn't build their 2nd HQ here. Could you imagine how much rent would go up because of that?

Could you imagine how much incomes would go up because of that?

[SL,UT]

True, But would teacher's incomes go up as well? How would graduate students such as myself find affordable housing? How would the homeless population be affected? I have a software engineering friend who lives in San Fran making over 190k per year, and he still can't find affordable housing in SF. Granted, SF has the highest median housing cost in the country, but I feel like if Amazon brings an HQ to SLC, it would price a lot of people out of the area.

[Comrade]

Maybe we should move the Amazon talk to the Salt Lake MSA thread since it looks pretty clear the state's proposal won't be anywhere in Salt Lake City - but rather out by the Point of the Mountain.