Utah off-topic

[MJLO]

Hey! If you're a forumer and you're posting from SLC identify yourself. I'd like to know more about SLC and the developments going on around there. But i'm not sure if we have any Utah forumers or lurkers, so if you're from Utah, stop in and join the convo. Tell me about SLC because from pictures, it looks like an awsome midsize city, with a vibrant and dense downtown.

[MJLO]

OK, I know we have some Utah Lurkers out there! I'm not going to stop until I get a couple SLC residents. Or anyone from Utah chatting it up with me!

[MJLO]

This is the new Utah forum, we have had forumers from Utah in the past, but with the lack of activity It has fizzled a little. So please introduce yourselves, say where you're from and break the ice.

[viperlord]

yo dude... The majority of us SLCers are grouped at www.skyscraperpage.com, and we are in the interior west forum section.

I have posted a thread on the SSP forum advertising this site. so hopefully we can get a more powerful rep of Utah in both forums. BTW, welcome aboard.

[viperlord]

here in the Downtown SLC area we have quite a few projects proposed.

We currently have over 3,000 housing units planned or either under construction. 900 of those units will be included in the Downtown mall redevelopment. Most of these units are coming in as small mid rise buildings. But we are hoping for some major residential high rises with the mall developments.

Office Vacancy for class A office space downtown is at a historic low right now at 3%. So we are hoping to see more office space proposals come online here soon. The hamilton partners tower at 222 south main street is scheduled to begin construction in september. it will be 21 stories tall, and will house over 400,000 sq. ft.

here are some links to follow for DT development projects.

sorry they arent really in any neat order. I've got some more projects that don't have any links to them, or havent found any information for that matter. I have been working on a SLC project list for the past 2 months now, but havent gotten any closer to finishing it unfortunately. I have around 30-40 projects on it probably. I need to finish it one day. But I will keep ya updated.

http://www.astleandcompany.com/huntingtonsl.html

http://www.deseretnews.com/dn/view2/1,4382...?textfield=mall

http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3992681

http://www.blueconservancy.com/rowhaus.html

http://www.midtownvillage.com/

http://wwhttp://www.allenmillo.com/broadwa...p.com/main.html

http://www.themetrocondos.com/

http://www.liveatmarmalade.com

http://www.slcmeridiencondos.com

http://www.wglofts.com/index.php

http://www.hamiltonpartners.com/location_o...ffice&id=70

hopefully that will give ya a small glimps of whats in store.

[MJLO]

awsome thanks viperlord! It's great to start getting a little western participation in here

there are so many mid rises proposed in SLC, are there hieight restrictions?

[viperlord]

there are some zoning restriction in certain areas of town yes, however the CBD where the main highrises are located has no height restrictions as so we are told. Also a lot of these projects you see are market rate housing. And market rate housing projects have to be feasible. Because of a lot of ground water levels in the Downtown area this prevents buildings from going high without a huge price tag. I know this because I worked on a project that was going to be 6 stories tall with underground parking, but the geotech reports came back and said ground water levels wouldnt permit it, and still be able to budget for it. so now we have a project with 4 stories and ground level parking. Also the same thing happened to a project across town as well. So, most developers are wanting to stay in budget, and still make money, so they sadly shy away from building expensive high rises.

Edited July 9, 2006 by viperlord

[Cybear]

there are some zoning restriction in certain areas of town yes, however the CBD where the main highrises are located has no height restrictions as so we are told. Also a lot of these projects you see are market rate housing. And market rate housing projects have to be feasible. Because of a lot of ground water levels in the Downtown area this prevents buildings from going high without a huge price tag. I know this because I worked on a project that was going to be 6 stories tall with underground parking, but the geotech reports came back and said ground water levels wouldnt permit it, and still be able to budget for it. so now we have a project with 4 stories and ground level parking. Also the same thing happened to a project across town as well. So, most developers are wanting to stay in budget, and still make money, so they sadly shy away from building expensive high rises.

Hey Viperlord, let's not forget to tell MJLO about the threat of seismic activity as another limiting factor. As we speak, the State Capitol is being "earthquake proofed."

[MJLO]

seriously? Not that I'm a big ole geologist or anything, but I never realized that area was prone to earthquakes!

hey cybear introduce yourself

[Cybear]

seriously? Not that I'm a big ole geologist or anything, but I never realized that area was prone to earthquakes!

hey cybear introduce yourself

I am from Charlotte and moved here a couple of years ago for both business and personal reasons. The people are great and the climate is incomparable. I do not miss humidity.

I am genuinely surprised by one thing however. For an urban area its size, SLC does seem to underachieve. I attribute that to two misperceptions. The first is local: People here seem to think that internally generated growth will allow SLC to compete with its urban competiton. I know of no other urban area that shares this perception, nor of any who have succeded upon that basis. It's a deadly misperception at that. The second misperception is foreign: Strangers have heard that outsiders are less than fully welcome here and that is shamefullly wrong. I think that as leadership changes hands and with the passage of time, both of these serious growth-inhibiting problems will solve themselves. I just hope that I'm still here when diversity and energy reach critical mass and this place takes off.

[MJLO]

great, thanks Cybear. What did you mean about urban competition I was a little confused by the wording.

[Cybear]

great, thanks Cybear. What did you mean about urban competition I was a little confused by the wording.

I meant that there are other cities in competition with Salt Lake to achieve business primacy of whatever sort in the West or indeed elsewhere in the nation. My perception is that Salt Lake is either oblvious to this or is prepared to concede losses in, for instance, head to head competiton for sizable business HQ reloactions or in mergers and acquisitions. For example, I cannot imagine Salt Lake's being involved in the kind of head to head struggle that occurred between Charlotte (NCNB) and Atlanta (C&S Sovran). As you know, that competition culminated in the formation of Nationsbank and allowed Charlotte to seize BofA from San Francisco and to stake its place as the Nation's second leading financial center.

The attitude I preceive present here is that with its large internal population growth numbers, Salt Lake's economic growth and prosperity won't require much participation in competition of this sort. I just don't see that approach succeeding.

[MJLO]

I have Utah forumers somewhere, where did you all go?

[jedikermit]

I'm from Utah too--I've lived in Salt Lake City most of my life. I live in the suburbs now, where I'm a history teacher, but I also worked in downtown Salt Lake City for seven years. It's a great place to live, but I do wish there were more happening on the construction front. There are a number of remarkable projects in the works that could either make or break the downtown area...I'm hoping they work out.

[MJLO]

Jedikermit, it's a pleasure having you here in the Utah forum. Alot of the Utah forumers have been infrequent as of late because there hasn't been much posted in here to talk about. That's partly my fault because i've been so busy at work, I haven't been able to devote the time that it deserves. Hopefully we all can create something good, and in the process I'll learn more about SLC.

Outside of SLC and it's valleys are there any Metro areas, or cities with even slightly significant population, in Utah? I haven't done much research on it.

[jedikermit]

There's a stretch of pretty much unbroken city from Ogden through and past Provo, with SLC being in the middle. Outside of that stretch, usually called the Wasatch Front (after the Wasatch range of mountains) there's really not a whole lot. Logan is just south of the Idaho border, and St George just north of the Arizona border; those are probably the next "big contenders" for cities, with St George having a real boom over the last five years or so that's projected to continue for a while yet.

Other Utahns could probably give you more precise numbers.

[MJLO]

It's been pretty quiet around here lately, what's goin on in Utah guys?

[Cybear]

It's been pretty quiet around here lately, what's goin on in Utah guys?

MJLO:

Could you set up a Salt Lake coffee house site for us? Perhaps the folks who want to contribute here wish only to discuss skylines and the like. As I recall, many are active primarily at other sites anyway. There's a place for intelligent and respectful discussion of other matters urban and maybe that's a coffee house spot like Charlotte's.

[MJLO]

Hey sorry it took me so long to reply, I've been hella busy. Coffee House subforums, are generally set up to organize subforums that have to many posts to keep track of. You'll notice city forums like Charlotte and Grand Rapids. that have more than 50k posts each. Utah isn't quite to that level. However feel free to start threads about whatever General conversation is quite welcome in the main parts of the forum. When we start really developing a community a Utah sub-sub forum can be created. But you can talk about whatever you want in the main Utah room. ( well within reason that is )

[Cybear]

Hey sorry it took me so long to reply, I've been hella busy. Coffee House subforums, are generally set up to organize subforums that have to many posts to keep track of. You'll notice city forums like Charlotte and Grand Rapids. that have more than 50k posts each. Utah isn't quite to that level. However feel free to start threads about whatever General conversation is quite welcome in the main parts of the forum. When we start really developing a community a Utah sub-sub forum can be created. But you can talk about whatever you want in the main Utah room. ( well within reason that is )

[MJLO]

I'll keep plugging away, building a Utah forum has been one of my pet projects. It's just not that easy when i'm so far away. I've also dropped the ball a little because of things that have taken my time at work. But I seem to have gotten my rythym back so here's hopin. Don't give up on me now Cybear. I'll work with you all

[MJLO]

Where U all at? Is there any Utah representation left here at UP?

If so Stand up and Be heard.

[Cybear]

Where U all at? Is there any Utah representation left here at UP?

If so Stand up and Be heard.

[MJLO]

I'm sorry my friend that you have been discouraged. I am scouring news sites for UP related SLC or Utah stories and i'm not finding many. If I were there I could start some kind of architecture discussion, but as it stands I don't really know much about SLC Arichitecture.

The whole USAirways thing was pretty much a bust to begin with. One thing I didn't realize was that SLC's Airport is one of the 20 busiest in the nation.

[MJLO]

I'm Declaring Urbanplanet Utah officially dead. Something needs to be re thought out. In eight months it's had 100 posts. Is there any interested Utah forumers out there?