Salt Lake City: Official Development News Thread - Part 5

[meman]

Just wanted to take a few minutes to rant .

Why is it that Salt Lake city is so far behind the 8-ball when it comes to high-rise development downtown compared to similar size or slightly larger cities such as Austin and Nashville.

As someone stated earlier Toronto has 500 development projects going on now.
I would be eccstatically happy if Salt Lake had one-tenth the development that Toronto has.

I know comparing Toronto to Salt Lake is comparing apples to oranges since Toronto is a MUCH bigger city than salt lake but still (even with all the development going on now) why is Salt Lake so far behind.

Does anyone out there now why this is?

Is it because Utah is such a conservative place?
Is it there is not enough money for major highrise development?
This seems hard to believe since utah currently has one of the best economies in the us.
Is it because developers here dont have the ambition to build iconic highrises here? Why?

Also why are prime corner lots such as 2nd south and 2nd east wasted with squatty low-rise crap apartment buildings? This is happening all over downtown. Many many underutilized prime lots are found downtown.
Why arent high rise towers being built on these prime corner lots?

Speaking of high-rises does anyone know when the official groundbreaking for Kensington tower (or Astra Tower ) wiil be?

[Orlando]

Meman,
Dude, Austin & Nashville are way ahead of most of the cities in the nation. And, Toronto, or many Canadian cities like Vancouver, are a completely different context.

Salt Lake City is seeing unprecedented high-rise growth since the early 1980's, and is outpacing many cities close to or even bigger than SLC. No need to rant. Just be amazed at all the legitimate highrises proposed and under construction.

[bob rulz]

Austin may be similar in size, but it is in a centralized location to 3 other major metropolitan areas within easy driving distance. It's been an unbelievably good location for tech firms to locate. It's also a cultural hub in a way SLC probably never will be.

Nashville and Austin are both in states that are as or more conservative than Utah, so in this particular instance that can't really explain anything.

Originally Posted by Atlas

New BSL article with a new mass timber proposal near the U:

https://www.buildingsaltlake.com/mas...er-this-month/

It might be "out of scale" for the area, but I think that's a great thing. The east side needs to start pulling its weight in terms of multi-family development. Not to mention its location near the university and transit makes it ripe for additional development. I say bring it on.

[scottharding]

I actually don't think the mass timber proposal is out of scale for the area. Less than a block to the east is the (relatively) new law building, and it's huge. If anything, this proposal would even it out a bit.

[wrendog]

Originally Posted by meman

Just wanted to take a few minutes to rant .

Why is it that Salt Lake city is so far behind the 8-ball when it comes to high-rise development downtown compared to similar size or slightly larger cities such as Austin and Nashville.

As someone stated earlier Toronto has 500 development projects going on now.
I would be eccstatically happy if Salt Lake had one-tenth the development that Toronto has.

I know comparing Toronto to Salt Lake is comparing apples to oranges since Toronto is a MUCH bigger city than salt lake but still (even with all the development going on now) why is Salt Lake so far behind.

Does anyone out there now why this is?

Is it because Utah is such a conservative place?
Is it there is not enough money for major highrise development?
This seems hard to believe since utah currently has one of the best economies in the us.
Is it because developers here dont have the ambition to build iconic highrises here? Why?

Also why are prime corner lots such as 2nd south and 2nd east wasted with squatty low-rise crap apartment buildings? This is happening all over downtown. Many many underutilized prime lots are found downtown.
Why arent high rise towers being built on these prime corner lots?

Speaking of high-rises does anyone know when the official groundbreaking for Kensington tower (or Astra Tower ) wiil be?

Austin and Nashville are the outliers. SLC is currently doing great compared to many similar sized CSAs like Sacramento, San Antonio, Indianapolis, Cincy, etc

[Comrade]

Scale it down so it doesn't demolish a significant amount of historic housing stock in a pretty interesting neighborhood. If it isn't scaled down, I hope the project fails. We're getting ridiculously flippant with perfectly fine homes being demolished for this type of development. It has to stop or in 50 years, Salt Lake isn't going to have any historical identity left.

I could see if the bungalows on this block were rundown - but they're not. Completely unnecessary development at its size. Hopefully the city demands it's scaled back (not necessarily in height) or they put the kibosh on this proposal.

[TMoneySLC]

Originally Posted by Atlas

New BSL article with a new mass timber proposal near the U:

https://www.buildingsaltlake.com/mas...er-this-month/

I don't know about all this. Seems to be grossly out of context for the area in general IMO.

[meman]

Maybe my perception of salt lake should be better regarding all the current construction going on or is in the pipeline. I just hope most of the projects get built.

I will admit Salt lake has come a long way in the past decade or so compared to the way it looked before.

But i will ask again, does any one know if an official groundbreaking date has been sent for for Kensington Tower, I did hear it was supposed to start construction in June.

[rockies]

Originally Posted by Atlas

I'm such a huge fan of cross laminated timber! I have always thought that large timber buildings would look great in SLC. This is sooo exciting

I honestly think that's a good place for it, too. Very busy walking/retail area by President's circle and it would be replacing mostly old student houses anyway. There are also taller buildings across the street at the university and even a few tall appt buildings already in the area.

[Blah_Amazing]

I posted this over on Reddit on Harbor Bay's INTRO SLC project and thought I would share it here.

[bob rulz]

We never hear about things being out of scale for the neighborhood when it's on the west side, or anywhere but a historic east side neighborhood.

We never complain about historic houses being demolished when it's on the west side.

We never complain about new housing developments unless they're on the east side.

The NIMBY complaints about neighborhood character, scale, etc, make me care less about saving historic architecture.

The only proven way to fix a housing crisis is to build, baby, build.

I agree 100% with you blah_amazing. This isn't out of scale for the area. The current make-up of the area is lagging behind what it should be.

[locolife]

Originally Posted by bob rulz

We never hear about things being out of scale for the neighborhood when it's on the west side, or anywhere but a historic east side neighborhood.

We never complain about historic houses being demolished when it's on the west side.

We never complain about new housing developments unless they're on the east side.

The NIMBY complaints about neighborhood character, scale, etc, make me care less about saving historic architecture.

The only proven way to fix a housing crisis is to build, baby, build.

I agree 100% with you blah_amazing. This isn't out of scale for the area. The current make-up of the area is lagging behind what it should be.

I don’t disagree on this point. My bigger concern is project financial viability going forward. Building is becoming a problem as disruptions to the supply chain continue. The story on home contract cancellation at Eagle Mountain states “due to the unforeseeable events... supply shortages, unprecedented increases in the cost of lumber and other construction materials, and delays in delivery of home appliances/products, we are unable to fulfill the contract.”

I’m wondering what the scale impact will be on these large scale projects.

https://www.fox13now.com/news/local-...-home-builders

[locolife]

Originally Posted by meman

Maybe my perception of salt lake should be better regarding all the current construction going on or is in the pipeline. I just hope most of the projects get built.

I will admit Salt lake has come a long way in the past decade or so compared to the way it looked before.

But i will ask again, does any one know if an official groundbreaking date has been sent for for Kensington Tower, I did hear it was supposed to start construction in June.

I’m not holding my breathe for new groundbreakings at the moment, hopefully I’m wrong and maybe steel/glass oriented construction will not be as impacted by supply issues....

[Makid]

Coming in to post, 225 S State has the tower crane going up today.

[Schmoe]

Originally Posted by meman

But i will ask again, does any one know if an official groundbreaking date has been sent for for Kensington Tower, I did hear it was supposed to start construction in June.

No one answered because no one knows.

It won't be June, though. If site permits haven't be filed for yet, it likely won't be until August/September. It's a large and complicated project with many moving parts. But we haven't seen or heard any indication that the project is in jeopardy.

[TheWire]

Posting this here because it will be fun lol

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...re-sources-say

[nushiof]

Originally Posted by TheWire

Posting this here because it will be fun lol

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...re-sources-say

Absolutely devastating for Oakland who have already lost the Raiders to Vegas and the Warriors across the bay to SF.

Can Ryan Smith just buy them and bring them here? Salt Lake can trade the Bees for the A's.

By the way, does anyone know what is happening with the sale of Real Salt Lake to new ownership. Will we be able to keep them in SLC?

[UTPlanner]

So I don't actually work for SLC any longer but definitely have some connections. I will ask around a bit for some updates on projects.

The Kensington Tower group has not even applied for a building permit yet. They are finishing up the final building drawings and will likely have to go back to the PC because of some changes to the exterior building materials. I wouldn't expect to see any significant site work earlier than this fall.

The Moda-Lux project has been struggling to break ground due to a substantial increase in construction cost and a difficulty procuring building materials at the moment.

The Edison House should be moving forward very quickly. There were some legal issues that needed to to be worked out with adjacent property owners.

[SLCLvr]

As I was driving by today it looked like demolition was beginning at the Sydney/Slate site in Central 9th and on the other side of town The Crossing at 9th (not sure if that is still the name) at 200 S 900 W in Euclid.

[allh]

Random, but check out this San Diego proposed hotel. Love the glass façade that doesn't cover the entire tower.
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...h-condos-hotel