An Indian restaurant in Salt Lake City is temporarily closed and without any way to make money, after thieves stole crucial wiring from the building, causing a power outage.
Star of India, at 1659 W. North Temple in the former Ramada hotel building, has been closed since the break-in on Aug. 28.
In a letter posted on the restaurant’s website, owner Paramjit Kaur wrote that the hotel has been in “various stages of demolition for quite some time,” inviting break-ins, fires and vandalism that have harmed her business. The hotel has been vacant since April 2022, when a temporary homeless shelter that had been operating there closed.
The building’s current owner, the Larry H. Miller Company, has made repairs and replaced equipment for the Star of India after other past instances of wire theft, said Amanda Covington, a spokesperson for the company. “We have worked closely with the Star of India for several months to subsidize their power costs and ensure they had the ability to operate,” Covington said in a statement.
But the most recent break-in resulted in a fire and heavy damage to essential power equipment, Covington said, and replacement parts won’t be available for eight to 10 months.
(Kolbie Peterson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Star of India is shown closed on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. The restaurant has been closed since Aug. 28 due to a power outage.
In the meantime, Salt Lake City inspectors have decided the building must be vacated, Covington’s statement continued.
Kaur told The Salt Lake Tribune that the goal was to stay in the restaurant’s current location for about a year, until its new space just down the street at the under-construction SPARK! mixed-use development was ready in mid-2025. But “our total loss of power requires a change of plans,” Kaur wrote in the letter.
Now, Star of India has about two months to find a temporary location from which to operate until the new space is ready and vacate the Ramada building, so Kaur is packing up the restaurant, she said.
This turn of events is a “very sad and crazy, unexpected situation,” Kaur said.
“We’ve been there almost for nine years, and then we were doing so good, so well, everything was going really well for us,” she said. “And all of a sudden, boom, overnight you just got upside down. In just seconds, your life became upside down.”
Victoria Petro, the Salt Lake City council member who represents District 1, which includes Fairpark, Jordan Meadows, Rose Park and Westpointe, told The Tribune that “the Star of India is a point of pride for the west side and protecting it is a priority.”
Petro also said the Salt Lake City Department of Economic Development has been able to provide Kaur with a couple of location options for the short term.
Kaur said she just needs to get into a space where they can fulfill takeout orders, so they can have some money coming in.
“Because right now, with this business like we have, you don’t run, you don’t make money,” she said.