Tall & Urban News

The global development company Hines announced it has acquired the 24-story South Temple Tower building with the intention of renovating the building and converting 217,000 square feet (20,159 square meters) of office space into a 255-unit "luxury multi-family tower" in the near future. The terms of the deal weren't disclosed but the agreement was made last week.

The project is expected to begin at the start of 2023. 

"The intent is to reuse much of this building as possible; for environmental and sustainable reasons, we want to use as much of the building as possible," said Dusty Harris, the senior managing director of Hines, adding that the project aims to help with downtown Salt Lake City's rapid growth and housing needs.

The South Temple Tower, located at 136 E. South Temple, was completed in 1966 under the original name of the University Club Building. The 274-foot (83.5-meter) office building served as downtown's tallest skyscraper before The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Office Building was completed in the early 1970s.

While the South Temple Tower functioned just fine over the years, the COVID-19 pandemic threw a wrench into companies' desire for its office space. Harris said that since the COVID-19 pandemic, some of the office space market is on the decline while the residential housing market demand hasn't shown any signs of slowing down.

The floor-level retail and restaurant space is likely to stay, though there may be some changes to what that looks like in the future.

For more on this story, go to KSL.