Developers broke ground Tuesday on a 10-story office and retail project in downtown Salt Lake City, called 650 Main.
The glass-clad tower at the southwest corner of Main Street and 600 South will add 332,100 square feet of high-end offices — with large floor plans, 10-foot-high ceilings and copious views — to Utah’s downtown business core, with its first phases set to be completed in early 2022.
The project’s backers have a second round of construction in mind, with an office building of similar size envisioned on adjacent land at 645 W. Temple.
The Utah Transit Authority announced in April it will add a new TRAX station nearby, paid for by Salt Lake City, its redevelopment agency and the developers.
The new tower has been designed by HOK, a worldwide firm headquartered in St. Louis, and its builders will reportedly aim for what’s known as LEED Gold, a high standard of energy efficiency.
In addition to a spacious lobby with seating areas and about 4,600 square feet of space for retail outlets, the new tower will offer tenants an indoor fitness center with locker rooms, bike storage, a private courtyard, conference facilities and both indoor and outdoor restaurant dining.
The tower is one of a half-dozen new high-rise projects proposed or under construction in Utah’s downtown core.
Work on 650 Main, which has been under discussion for several years, is getting underway in spite of the pandemic after its primary backers — Houston-based developer Patrinely Group and USAA Real Estate, with home offices in San Antonio — announced in March they’d landed a major tenant for the new building.
EnerBank USA, a consumer lending company, will occupy the tower’s top three floors, or about 30% of the first tower’s overall space, a spokeswoman for Patrinely said. The developers secured financing for the construction as recently as July 9 from a Canadian firm called QuadReal Finance, she said.
The project is also reportedly evidence of the attraction of smaller urban areas for real estate investors who are being drawn amid the pandemic to so-called “secondary market” locations with lower population densities.
Robert Fields, president and CEO of Patrinely Group, said in a statement the 650 Main groundbreaking “reinforces our confidence in the strength and appeal of Salt Lake City as a premier business environment and aspirational destination for individuals and companies.”
Patrinely was also lured to the locale by the prospect of mass transit, the company spokeswoman said.
