The Lotus Company took its next significant step in recent days to move forward with its mixed-use development of a key parcel just south of Downtown Salt Lake City.
Fresh off the design review approval for its planned development at 48 W. 700 S., Lotus requested approval to demolish the former Rick Warner Body Shop to make way for its new project.
The project has been years in the making and endured changes on its way to final approval.
The final version of the plan calls for 184 residential units in a building that would also contain 229 parking stalls.
The building would contain two concrete levels that would include parking, three commercial units on the ground floor and six live/work units on the east side of the project. Upper floors would consist of four wood levels with apartment units and tenant amenities, including a swimming pool.
The plot is a total of 1.84 acres, and the land is currently zoned as Downtown Support District (D-2). The existing site includes an auto collision repair shop, another auto mechanic shop and a surface parking lot — all of which would be demolished to make way for the development.
The project first obtained approval from the Planning Commission in 2022 in the lead-up to the interest rate spike that helped chill the commercial real estate boom throughout the Wasatch Front.
However, in June 2024, the project’s developer, Lotus Company, a BSL advertiser, reappeared before the planning commission and requested modifications. The new proposal called for getting rid of the underground parking and opting to put that parking on the building’s second floor — which meant the number of housing units would be reduced to 184. A 2024 letter from the applicant said the new plans eliminated 43 units from the top floor and added 13 units to the second floor.
Project Details
- 87 one-bedrooms
- 85 two-bedrooms
- 12 three-bedrooms
- 184 total
The site is significant not only because of its potential to help bridge the Downtown core with the Central 9th district. But also because of its close proximity to the future Intermountain Health hospital at the former Sears Block less than a block away.
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