Commission approves downtown Paper Box Project
The next phase of the redevelopment of the area surrounding the intersection of 200 South and 300 West is moving forward. On Wednesday, the Salt Lake City Planning Commission approved a Conditional Building and Site Design Review and Planned Development request by
development partners, Clearwater Homes and Peg Development, for the Paper Box Lofts, a mixed-use development proposed for the 100 South block of 300 West.
The project will include three mixed-use buildings and a parking structure and will occupy the middle of the block with frontage on both 300 West and 400 West. The three mixed-use buildings will also front a pedestrian walkway, several plazas and a small through street. Public art will adorn several of the building facades that face the plazas.
The project is named after the Paper Box Company, a 104-year-old company that previously occupied the current structure on the site before moving their headquarters to their current location at 920 South 700 West.
The buildings will have combined 183 residential units. The two largest buildings will occupy the south side of the development and will both be six-stories tall with 95 and 84 units respectively. The units will be a mix of studio, one and two-bedroom apartments. Both buildings will sit above a shared parking structure. The parking structure will include 214 parking stalls, 63 of which utilize the City Lift automated parking appliance.
A landscaped plaza will separate the two larger buildings and each building will also front street-facing plaza at the east and west ends of the property. The two buildings will have live/work walk-up units on the ground floor, but the west-facing building will have one 1,476-square-foot retail pad just off of 300 West.
A smaller building will be just north of the larger two buildings and will be three stories with four, two-bedroom units and a ground floor, 760-square-foot leasing office.
In January 2016 the City Council acting as the Board of Directors of the Redevelopment Agency of Salt Lake City (RDA) approved entering into an Exclusive Negotiations Agreement with the developers. Under a revised agreement, the developers will need to reserve at least 36 units reserved for residents earning 60 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI) for the project’s first 30 years.
The developers will use a fence and landscaping to screen a substation owned by Utah Power and Light on 400 West. The developers will incorporate public art into taller sections of the fence that will separate the substation from the development.
Both Clearwater and Peg have invested heavily in the area. Clearwater converted the former Westgate Business Center into the 38-unit, Paragon Station Lofts. The lofts are directly south of the site for the proposed Paper Box Lofts.
Peg has an even more prolific presence in the immediate vicinity. In 2016 the developers completed the Downtown Hyatt House and Courtyard by Marriott hotels that sit to the north of the Paper Box parcel. The Hyatt House will share a large plaza with the Paper Box’s 300-West-facing-building.
Peg is also nearing completion of a large development at the 200 West Block of 200 South, kitty-corner to the Paper Box site. That project consists of the complete, eight-story AC Marriott Hotel and the Milagro, a seven-story mixed-use residential development with 170 apartments and ground floor retail.
Under the terms with the RDA, the developers will need to start construction on the PaperBox Lofts by 2019.
*This is an updated version of a previous post.
