Renderings by Studio PBA of the Sugarmont Apartments looking west on Sugarmont Drive. Image courtesy Salt Lake City planning documents.
When developers, Boulder Ventures, first presented their plans for the Sugarmont Apartments to the Sugar House Community Council late 2015, outcry over the project’s size was loud and swift.
Many residents balked at Boulder’s plans to build a 10-story building with 492 residential units (120 units more than the combined total of the adjacent Liberty Village and Vue at Sugar House developments) on the site former Granite Furniture Warehouse near the intersection of McClelland and Sugarmont Drive.
In preparation to go before the Salt Lake City Planning Commission, the developers have officially submitted further scaled-back plans to the city. Boulder Ventures is requesting approval to build an eight-story building with 352 residential units.
Aerial view of the block surrounding the proposed Sugarmont Apartments. Image courtesy Salt Lake City planning documents.
This is the developer’s third design for the Sugarmont. After the initial presentation with Sugar House residents, the developers returned to community council a month later with new, slightly scaled back plans that reduced the project’s floor count to nine and the number of units to 433. That design also split the building into two structures separated by a public walkway near the intersection of McClelland and Sugarmont Streets that would be incorporated into the local trail network, instead of the large L-shaped building originally proposed.
The new design, by Denver based Studio PBA architects, retains the public walkway and will connect the two residential buildings with a five-story pedestrian bridge. The plaza will occupy 11 percent of the total site area with the bulk of the plaza fronting the intersection of McClelland and Sugarmont and a proposed half-block extension of Wilmington Avenue directly east and north of the project.
The extension of Wilmington Avenue past Highland Drive will be part of commercial project by Craig Mecham Management, the developer of the adjacent Vue at Sugar House Crossing. Mecham plans to build a 150,000 square-foot, seven story building with mix of commercial space and a clinic run by the University of Utah occupying the ground floor.
The project will consist of a three story platform with 19 townhome units wrapped around a a 460-stall parking structure. Five wood-framed floors of residential will sit above the platform and will include 206 one-bedroom units, 93 two-bedroom units and 34 studio apartments.
The top five floors will be setback from the podium and will include a pool, roof deck and courtyard space for residents. Most of the exterior units will have a private deck. The townhomes fronting Sugarmont Drive will be two stories with a roof deck for the on the third level. The townhomes fronting McClelland will be three stories and will include a private deck on the third floor.
The project will be amenity rich with the Fairmont Park directly across of Sugarmont Drive and the Fairmont Streetcar Station directly across of McClelland Street.
Rendering of the pedestrian passage of Sugarmont Apartments looking north from Sugarmont Drive and McClelland Street. Image courtesy Salt Lake City planning documents.
Rendering of the Sugarmont Apartments on McClelland Street. Image courtesy Salt Lake City planning documents.
Both plans seem great, too bad people in sugarhouse are so scared of density!
Why can’t Salt Lake be more dense and urban like Austin, Portland, and Seattle that have buildings with personality and style? Oh, that’s right! Salt Lake has no personality and style!
Well Seattle has 2million more people than Salt Lake. Portland’s not that tall at all (though its dense). Austin isn’t very dense, but definitely has been on a tall-building boom.
Salt Lake is building more like L.A than those other cities. But hopefully a rising tide lifts all boats.
Have you ever been to Austin? Their downtown is probably twice the size of Salt Lake’s. And very dense. The area around Congress and Fifth has some pretty incredible stuff.
It cracks me up to hear people say Saly Lake is so clean and beautiful. They couldn’t be further from the truth. Moreover, Salt Lake is nothing like LA. LA is just a bunch of urban sprawl.
How many parking spaces? The development on 9th and 9th tried to get away w/5000 sqft of retail & and xx # of units only putting in one less parking space than the # of units! For the entire development! Crazy. People are still going to have cars and need a place to park/store them.
The people in Salt Lake don’t seem very intelligent to me. WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF LAND PEOPLE, THE ONLY WAY TO BUILD IS UP! LMFAO!