A historic Downtown office building on a busy Downtown corner has a new owner, and it’s someone who doesn’t typically own office space.
The Judge Building, located at 8 E. Broadway on the southeast corner of Broadway and Main Street, was recently purchased by Chris Parker of Salt Lake City’s Giv Group, according to records obtained by Building Salt Lake from the Salt Lake County Recorder’s Office.
County records show the building’s previous owners, a company named Judge Building LLC, sold it to The Judge LLC in recent months. The letter was notarized on July 31, and records show the paperwork was filed with the county on Aug. 1.
State business entity records show the Judge Building LLC has two principals — Wayne Petty and Glen Saxton. The new owner, The Judge LLC, lists Chris Parker as the lone principal in state business entity records. The address of The Judge LLC matches the address listed on Giv Group’s website.
The terms of the purchase weren’t disclosed, and Utah is one of 12 states that doesn’t require the sale price of property to be listed in public records, as the state can be categorized as a “non-disclosure” state.
County parcel records indicate the Judge Building sits on .32 acres of land, and the plot’s 2025 tax year valuation estimates the value at just over $10 million. The seven-floor Judge Building has a number of office tenants, according to a LoopNet listing for the building. The listing says the Judge Building was built in 1907 and renovated in 1976.
Parker’s Giv Group is largely known for developing affordable housing projects, as their portfolio includes Citizens West and Project Open near the North Temple FrontRunner station, Pamela’s Place in the Granary District and Imagine Jefferson in Ogden.
Parker said he was not able to comment on the Judge Building’s purchase when reached Thursday.
Parker has a history of buying office space and turning it into housing. As we reported in 2023, Parker’s Perpetual Housing Fund and the Rocky Mountain Homes Fund purchased the HK Tower at 100 South and 500 East with plans of converting it into affordable housing that features profit-sharing with renters and shared-equity ownership units.
Derek Sawaya, associate vice president of Collier’s downtown Salt Lake City office, said he sold that building to Giv Group. Sawaya told Building Salt Lake that the HK Tower project will not only include the converted housing units, but the development will also include an additional 12-floor tower for added residential units.
“The lot was big enough to where (Parker) can build an additional tower, and I’m told that should break ground sometime next year,” Sawaya told BSL.
He added that he’s seen the converted units at the existing HK Tower, which he said will feature exposed ceilings and a number of amenities for tenants. The existing tower will also be home to Parker’s corporate headquarters, as well as coworking space for nonprofits, Sawaya said.
Converting office space into housing is no small task, but it also can kill two birds with one stone. Not only does it create more housing units — which Utah desperately needs more of — but it also creates a healthier environment for the office real estate market, according to Chris Kirk, managing director of Collier’s Downtown Salt Lake City branch.
It can be “a really good thing for the office market in general to convert existing buildings that might be not as competitive in the market to attract office tenants today, and reposition them into a multifamily (building),” Kirk said.
One example he cited was the former site of the American Plaza building, located at 77 W. 200 South, which was recently converted from office space into apartments. The building is now being called the AP1 Lofts, which offers 74 studio and one-bedroom units.
0 Comments