The new Seraph building may herald a new era of adaptive reuse in downtown Salt Lake City.
A former office tower in downtown Salt Lake City is now a luxury 217-unit residential tower, reports Tony Semerad in The Salt Lake Tribune.
“With many office properties currently underutilized — both in Utah and nationally — and high interest rates pushing up the costs of new construction, some commercial real estate experts are suggesting that adaptive reuse has become an increasingly viable way for cities to add housing.” The renovated tower, dubbed Seraph, offers apartments from studios to three-bedrooms at luxury prices.
The same developer, Hines, is working on another Salt Lake project that is now stalled. After demolishing a historic theater building, Hines shelved plans to build a 400-unit apartment building that would have included some subsidized units.
According to Hines, adapting the building will reduce carbon emissions by as much as 74 percent compared to building from the ground up. “Given its rapid population growth, flexibility in city zoning and many older, underutilized office buildings downtown, Hines officials said, Salt Lake City ‘presented a compelling environment’ to make the Seraph conversion happen.”
Read the full story: A 1960s SLC office tower reopens as luxury apartments, showcasing reuse as path to new housing
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