What hubris! Do these buildings have contracted buyers and renters for all this space? Nah! But they are gonna charge such and such while the demand for high priced digs is contracting. These developers are a bunch of comedians.

This is nothing new, rent is going up everywhere. It's called GREED!

Dear "The(re) Are Other Choices" and "yea so." What do you want?? A downtown that continues to deteriorates like so many other US cities that are ugly and unsafe or a bright new 21st century model for the world. What greed?? It's called the market. Grow up.

Why would anyone pay 35% over market rates (a fact "Grow up" doesn't seem to comprehend) for a poor location like that? Bingham's comment about needing to charge extra to pay for copper, steel and concrete seems pretty naive. I've heard they've had big problems pre-leasing and now I understand why.

supply side economics aside if you want to attract people to downtown you don’t price out the largest block of potential residents. the reality is everything has a price but Salt Lake is not Las Vegas, Beverly Hills, or upper Manhattan (posh, upscale, lifestyle destination cities). $400,000 dollars for a small dwelling in downtown Salt Lake is simply not reasonable. yes downtown needs to be revitalized and yes investors should see a maximum return on their dollar but at what long term cost? Salt Lake is already in danger of becoming San Francisco or Seattle (ultra liberal and anti family values) hopefully the mortgage issues that plague the housing market will help bring prices back to earth and inject some much needed clarity into the situation. if it doesn’t then Salt Lake will continue to price itself into oblivion because the ultra rich wont come here to live (without sacrificing the very principles Salt Lake was founded on), and a scorned populace has a long, long memory and that is the reality.

>>Salt Lake is already in danger of becoming San Francisco or Seattle (ultra liberal and anti family values) >>

We can only hope!

And when a bunch of high income professionals are living in their $400K condos, and contributing to certain politicians' campaigns, maybe THEN we will finally have reasonable liquor laws.

its all about the drink! :)

I like your style 9:39

I think I would go else where and let them go Bankrupt

I think you should remember that there are many boomers/empty-nesters who will be (or already are) in the market for a vacation home or a pied-a'-terre. What SLC is building in its downtown renovation will fit that bill for many. Myself included. The plans look beautiful and I hope I can be one to call downtown SLC home within the coming years.

2ndHomer,

Make sure you don't over pay. This thing won't be moving in the economic environment going forward. Utah county is awash in empty commercial real estate

Why all the venom? Nobody pays the manufacturers suggested retail price. No matter what developers/potential residents say, basic supply and demand will ultimately determine the price.

In the meantime, it's nice to see Utah's premier downtown area being revitatilized with developments that will be enjoyed by citizens throughout the state.

It's interesting that the SLTrib covered this story as a positive regarding the development of SLC while the DNews puts a negative spin regarding higher costs. Is there an ulterior motive?

I pay 1,035/month for a 1 bdrm 1 bthrm apartment in a nice complex.... something I would expect to pay around 500-600/month in SLC. THATS HIGH RENT! And what is so anti family about san Francisco and Seattle? Both of those cities made the top 10 cleanest cities list last week? Beautiful cities with lots of hard working people.

Why do we have a mortgage crisis? One reason is that you have to earn twice the average income to be able to afford a 225,000 condo. Real estate continues to skyrocket while wages go down. Even Forrest Gump could figure out that this bubble will burst someday.

So Bruce Bingham admits that the $32-$35/square foot rates for the new 222 building are way above the current $26/square foot market rates (and probably headed down with the coming recession) and he believes people will pay that because he needs to pay for his copper? Good luck finding gullible tenants to pay those exorbitant rates, Bruce.