Micro units coming to Central Ninth
With rising rents and a low rental vacancy rate, many people wanting to relocate to the city are having difficulty finding quality housing options within their budget. Developer Steve Ruf, of Ruf Associates, sees micro apartments as one solution to the City’s housing crisis.
“We saw these being built in Seattle and Portland Oregon, even Des Moines Iowa,” said Ruf. “We thought Salt Lake was ready for this type of thing.”
Ruf will start construction soon on the first phase of the Greenprint Apartments, a 60 micro unit residential development on the 800 South block of 200 West in the Cental Ninth neighborhood. Ruf chose the neighborhood for its transit access, proximity to downtown and the neighborhoods growing amenities like Blue Copper Coffee Room and the nearly finished, Central Ninth Market.
“Our project fits in well in the neighborhood, it will help make it a vibrant area in the city,” said Ruf.
The project will be built in two phases and will replace a vacant lot and single family home on a combined 0.20 acres parcel. Greenprint Apartments will feature two four-story buildings with 30 units each. The south building will be the first to be built. The units will be between 250-350 square feet and will be studio-style apartments with shared living and sleeping space and a kitchenette. Ruf expects rents to be between $700 to $800, depending on the size and location of the unit.
Many of the units will have small balconies with the fourth-floor units providing balcony views of downtown. Each building will have six units per will a full-size bathtub.
There are no official guidelines on what designates an apartment as micro as the average square footage varies by city. In general units at 350 square feet or less are considered micro units.
Ruf plans to market the Greenprint Apartments to students and professional millennials that want to have a small footprint, live green and live in an urban and walkable neighborhood.
The development will not include off-street parking except two handicapped spaces accessed from an alleyway just west of the buildings. The project area is in the FB-UN2 (Form Based Urban Neighborhood 2) zone, which doesn’t have minimum off-street parking requirements. The project is directly adjacent to the 900 South TRAX station and each building will have eight bike parking stalls on 200 West.
“We aren’t marketing to those that have cars,” said Ruf.
