Developers are wrapping up the Post District: a new neighborhood where one didn’t exist before

by Taylor Anderson | Nov 4, 2024

Five years after first unveiling their plans to turn a swath of largely vacant and underutilized land southwest of Downtown into a thriving new mixed-use district, Salt Lake City developers are putting the finishing touches on the Post District.

On a recent sunny autumn afternoon, the sidewalks and newly built street running through the center of the district was largely devoid of activity. Several of the new retail tenants have yet to move in.

But there were signs that the 10-acre district of retrofitted and newly constructed buildings are helping to stitch the city back together after over a century of disconnection between Downtown and its previously industrial areas to the south.

The local grill powerhouse Traeger has already moved its headquarters into the rehabbed Newspaper Agency Corporation building, the namesake for the Post District.

Residents have begun leasing apartments within the new buildings lining 300 West between 500 South and 600 South.

The newly built street showed that it was successfully designed as a woonerf, the often-desired but rarely duplicated Dutch style street that keeps vehicle speeds very low and helps create a welcoming pedestrian environment.

That was the intention from Blaser Ventures, the lead developer behind the Post District and a Building Salt Lake advertiser.

***Gale Street, the one north-south street running through the middle of the Post District, was designed to deter high vehicle speeds and instead promote an atmosphere of a pleasant urban neighborhood.***

With one north-south street running through the district lined by locally owned retail spaces, Blaser wanted to make sure Gale Street functioned in a way that create a reprieve from the state-owned and car-choked roads on three of the Post District’s four boundaries.

Blaser CEO Brandon Blaser has previously said he rejected offers from international chains like Starbucks to lease space in the district, opting instead to rent exclusively to local companies.

The restaurant Urban Hill has acted as a kind of marketing star for the district, with its head chef earning a prestigious James Beard nomination this year. Other retail outlets are set to flesh out the district’s offerings as they open.

Sunday’s Best: 9,375 square feet
Urban Hill: 7,200 square feet
Thirst Drinks: 2,972 square feet
Level Crossing: 2,690 square feet
Mensho Ramen: 1,952 square feet
Cluck Truck: 1,208 square feet
Melancholy: 1,000 square feet
Urban Sailor: 899 square feet

Despite the car moats that exist north and south of the Post District, the buildings visually bridge the gap between the southern portion of Downtown and the Granary District immediately south.

Blaser is already working to continue that progress with another master planned development immediately west of the Post District, with a project known as the Silos.

Once complete, the Silos will offer more apartments, retail and a privately owned park at the center that will offer open space in a part of town that could desperately use more. (The fact that it’s privately owned means the investor owners will maintain control over access, but it also offers a loophole from Utah’s moronic alcohol laws.)

***Work is already underway on a new master planned district immediately west of the Post District, known as the Silos.***

***Traeger moved its headquarters from Sugar House to the former Newspaper Agency Corporation building, from which the Post District got its name.*** Photos by Taylor Anderson

***Level Crossing Brewing Company opened its second location near the Post District’s north end about a year ago.***

***Looking south from the north end of the Post District in October 2024. The building under construction in the background is across 600 South, in the Granary District.***

***One of the retrofitted buildings in the interior of the one Salt Lake City block that includes the Post District.***

While the district isn’t yet ready to show how it will function as a new urban district in the city, it has already added the capacity for about 750 new residents to call it home, with thousands more a short walk away.

We’ll provide another check-in at that point and fill you in on what the Post District has added to the city.