Ogdenites should be bullish on the city’s future. Developers certainly are. 

In recent years, the Junction City has seen numerous new projects popping up around town — from new multifamily buildings along Wall Avenue and near Five Points, to the incoming WonderBlock project that will dramatically alter nearly an entire block of the city’s downtown and Historic 25th Street. 

Developers tell Building Salt Lake there’s no signs of slowing down, as more projects continue to go vertical and other parcels are slated for redevelopment in the coming years — even amid the sluggish multifamily market in Salt Lake City. Ogden’s established downtown core, available land and foresight from local leaders have allowed the city to grow.

Steven Blomquist, director of development for Lotus Company, which has added around 500 apartment units to the city in recent years, told BSL that Ogden is a strategic location for builders. It’s not as restricted by mountains and the Great Salt Lake like cities in Davis County, while still being close to Salt Lake.

Given the amount of development-ready land and an established downtown, the city is an attractive place for multifamily developers. Blomquist said those factors, “created a really unique opportunity for developers to go in, who want to do multifamily, whether it’s market rate or affordable, because (the city has) the density that’s needed. They have the services that a lot of affordable and market rate tenants rely on, and they provide access to a downtown environment.

“That’s kind of what initially attracted (Lotus), is at the time when we originally entered Ogden, it was kind of an untapped market,” he said.

Role of the City’s General Plan 

Like other cities around the Wasatch Front, Ogden has been retooling its zoning code and general plan in recent years, a process that’s still ongoing. But back in 2020, the city adopted its Make Ogden plan, a document that will guide growth and development downtown through 2045. 

Mitch Vance, a development manager for J. Fisher, the Centerville-based company building the WonderBlock site, said the Make Ogden plan is a proactive and forward-thinking document that will pave the way for the city’s future. 

He explained that Make Ogden helped illustrate what the city could look like in the future, and helped spur new developments around town. In past years, there weren’t many market studies or comps for lenders to analyze before making decisions. Make Ogden, Vance said, took that first step and got the ball rolling. 

“That’s what the Make Ogden plan addressed, (it said) ‘Listen, this market isn’t where we want to be, how do we get it jump started with a catalyst? (It’s) something that really gets people interested and gets things going,’” Vance said. “(It) creates those comps, creates that economic driver. Then the city can step away and watch it grow.” 

Another factor in the city’s development is the Business Depot Ogden, or BDO, said David Sawyer, the city’s deputy director of community and economic development. The BDO is a massive complex of warehouses and industrial space in the northwest corner of town that’s largely owned by the city, which collects lease payments from businesses. 

Sawyer added that the city’s redevelopment agency invested in the BDO’s infrastructure and, “then we entered into a partnership with the developer, and most of the increment from that came online about eight to 10 years ago.”

He said the funds have been a boon for the city, adding “it’s what funds a lot of our community improvement projects, without us having to raise taxes and burden our taxpayers.”

Eric Gibson, Ogden’s economic development director, told BSL the city’s geography plays a big part in its recent expansion as well. He said as Salt Lake City continues to densify, Ogden’s urban core provides developers with an established base that allows for new developments in a separate market.

“Ogden is really well positioned because we have these really great older buildings that are ripe for redevelopment, and you can leverage a lot of the state and federal programs that can leverage that building, and you’re doing redevelopment work and reactivating the space,” Gibson said. 

Given the city’s economic profile and available land for redevelopment, Gibson said Ogden is part of the state’s next wave of development. And the WonderBlock project could serve as the catalyst for the city’s future.

“That’s going to be the real, I think, litmus test of if our theory is correct, that the city can support higher wage rates, can support class A office, can produce an amenitized downtown urban space,” Gibson said. “A lot of developers are looking at that and seeing the activation there, and going, ‘okay, there’s the potential upside here, and we want to get in on it.’”

Wonderblock and Recent Projects

Walking along Historic 25th Street, you’ll find the Union Walk building is in the process of leasing up. The five-floor, 55-unit project will house residents just feet away from dining and entertainment options. The building also includes retail spaces, though they have yet to be filled. 

To the southeast, you’ll find the city’s largest redevelopment effort in recent memory. 

J. Fisher’s WonderBlock will deliver two of its buildings later this year, which will include a 170-unit residential building at the corner of Lincoln Avenue and 26th Street with ground floor retail units. The other building will total around 100,000 square feet of class A office space across five floors. A parking garage at the center of the development is already open. 

When finished, the entire WonderBlock complex will house over 350 residential units; the class A office space; 50,000 square feet of retail; a 20,000 square foot grocery store; a hotel and other amenities. In recent years, J. Fisher also completed the Towns at 24th project, a 26-unit for-sale townhome complex at 24th Street and Porter Avenue. 

Elsewhere around town, a number of new housing complexes have opened in recent years. 

The two Hunter’s Landing buildings have added over 250 units along the 12th Street corridor, with a third also in the works. Complexes like The Carlo at Washington and the Wall and 17th apartments have added over 300 apartment units along some of the city’s busiest corridors. Other new projects like the Enduro Townhomes, located at the mouth of Ogden Canyon, have added a new type of rental unit to the city. The complex consists of 164 townhome units. 

However, building multifamily housing in commercial zones is now restricted, per a city ordinance, as the city hopes to direct new developments toward downtown.

Located just west of Enduro is one of Lotus’ new builds to open in recent years — the Whisperwood Townhomes. The complex offers two- and three-bedroom townhome units near the mouth of Ogden Canyon. The Current townhomes complex is another recent build from Lotus, and it’s located along the Ogden River just a few blocks north of downtown. Along with housing, the development also included a handful of food and beverage options, like Ogden Beer Company and Thai Better, to name a few. 

Lotus has added even more units around town, like in its Riverwalk complex. The multi-building apartment complex is located to the west of the Current complex and is also against the Ogden River. While many of the buildings hug the river, the complex is also built around a Walmart just off Wall Avenue. 

You won’t have to go far from Riverwalk to find more Lotus apartments that are being built.  

Ongoing and Future Builds

Among many of Lotus’ upcoming projects in Ogden is the Edgewater complex, a 137-unit project that will feature six buildings along the Ogden River. The complex will be located east of Riverwalk and west of Current. Buildings in the Edgewater complex will be ready by October or November and into the winter. 

Blomquist told BSL that another project that’s finishing up is Ember, a 97-unit project located at 2263 Grant Avenue that will offer one-, two- and three-bedroom units. The building will be ready for leasing by the end of summer or early fall, he said. 

Lotus Fluence, located at 420 E 2nd St., is a 225-unit building that is being built at the site of a long-vacant grocery store near Five Points. Blomquist said that project will wrap up construction by the middle to the end of fall.

Other future Lotus builds include the Forge building, which will be a 193-unit project in the same block as the Ember project near Grant Avenue. Blomquist said Lotus is still working on building permits for Forge, and they hope to start construction on the project in the coming months. 

Another upcoming project will be for the Crown building, which would consist of retrofitting an old warehouse on Grant Avenue and turning the upper floors into 25 “income-targeted artist lofts,” according to the city’s RDA. A proposal to update a development agreement on the Crown building will go before the Ogden City Council on Tuesday. The first floor of the building is home to the UTOG Brewing Company, which opened in 2019. 

For J. Fisher, the WonderBlock building isn’t their only project in town. The company opened its 25th & Quincy 4% LIHTC building last September, which features 176 units made up of 1- and 2-bedroom apartments. 

To the northwest of 25th & Quincy lies a large parcel of vacant land that was formerly the home of a Rite Aid. That block, which has been named the Capitol Square project, is slated for a massive redevelopment in the coming years. The RDA-owned site includes a 4.7-acre parcel, plus a handful of smaller parcels. In total, the city owns around 5.53 acres. 

Plans haven’t been formalized for the block, but Vance said J. Fisher is ready and willing to step in if Ogden City wants them to continue building on the block. 

In addition to these plans, another recent deal could result in even further building in Ogden. 

In May, a Boise-based real estate investment group, Alturas Capital Partners, purchased a long-blighted, 14.36-acre parcel near 12th Street and Wall Avenue. The parcel, which used to house a Fred Meyer department store, could be developed into a “neighborhood-oriented retail and mixed-use center” in the coming years, according to a news release following Alturas’ purchase. 

Ogden on the Horizon

For Lotus, the Ogden market is more of a bright spot than Salt Lake in terms of rent growth and new opportunities. 

Blomquist said one reason for that outlook is the sheer number of units built in Salt Lake recently. He said there’s still a strong demand for people who want easy access to a downtown urban core, but also might not want to live in Downtown Salt Lake City. 

“There’s still so much growth going on up there,” he told BSL. “We’ve been able to see that when we turn over a project, it leases up pretty well. On average, our affordable projects have a 5-7% vacancy, so there’s still a pretty good demand for people wanting to live there.”

Beyond WonderBlock, J. Fisher is also planning to handle the redevelopment of Ogden’s Union Station, which would transform roughly 30 acres of land and bring Ogden’s FrontRunner stop into the historic train station. 

“Union Station is a once in a generation project,” Vance said. “We’re excited about that one, because it takes that cultural asset, that iconic moment, and kind of works to return it to what it was as an activation hub, and knitting it back into the structure of downtown.” 

Numerous parcels surrounding Union Station are vacant or are likely places for redevelopment. The Make Ogden plan spells out a very different downtown Ogden than what currently exists, as it calls for numerous infill projects, extending 26th Street to the west and building out Electric Alley — as much of that land is home to surface parking lots for 25th Street businesses. 

Ogden also has a good stock of smaller, more affordable homes that are ideal for first time home buyers, said Barton Brierley, the city’s planning manager. He said the city is actively trying to find ways to promote home ownership with infill projects, beyond just building multifamily projects. 

Either way, Brierley said downtown Ogden has some of the most valuable land in northern Utah, and the Make Ogden plan seeks to maximize the city’s potential. He said the city wants to enable density and new housing opportunities to create an urbanized environment downtown.  

“We really envision lots of multi-story buildings, making better use of land,” Brierley told BSL. The city government wants, “downtown Ogden (to) be really a hub of employment, where we bring in new businesses and, and a very walkable place to live.”

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