Sugar House project gets conditional OK

The start-and-stop demolition/construction project on the corner of 2100 South and Highland Drive in Sugar House can get started again.

The Salt Lake City Planning Commission unanimously voted Wednesday to grant conditional approval for the 4 1/2-acre residential, retail and office development proposed by Craig Mecham, allowing construction to begin.

The decision comes nearly a year after Mecham first pitched the project to the commission. The developer encountered several obstacles on the road to approval, which led to temporary work stoppages and disagreements with city planning officials.

Much of the hourlong discussion about the project Wednesday focused on its potential negative impacts on traffic in Sugar House.

As part of the conditional approval, the developer was instructed to work with the city's traffic officials to mitigate that impact.

The commission also required that Mecham live up to his commitment to obtain Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification for the project.

The approved plans call for construction of two side-by-side buildings — a seven-story office structure and an eight-story residential building — with street-level retail and three levels of underground parking containing 491 stalls.

The two buildings would share about 37,000 square feet of retail space to be filled by as many as 16 commercial tenants.

The planned office building would stand 105 feet high, with 114,000 square feet of office space.

The residential building is designed to be 99 feet high, with about 142,000 square feet of living space spread over 57 units. Mecham said the residential units would be large, high-end condos.

Demolition work got under way at the site in January but stalled when it was discovered that the then-partially demolished Blue Boutique building shared a wall with its neighbor to the west, a building owned by Rockwood Investment Associates.

It took more than two months for the property owners to work out an agreement that allowed the building to be demolished.

City building officials met and exchanged letters with Mecham and his attorney in May and June over community concerns about the state of the then-stalled project and the developer's failure to live up to his commitment to landscape the site.

Ultimately, Mecham met a city-imposed deadline to landscape the site. Construction of the two buildings will require removal of the landscaping.

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