Nonprofit developer unwraps profit-sharing apartment tower that could serve as a model

by Jacob Scholl | Oct 31, 2025

On the unfinished 14th floor of the former HK Tower office building and high above the other buildings in the Central City neighborhood, local developers and state leaders spoke about a new, unique program that allows renters to begin building equity in hopes of financial stability.

At the new Arbor 515, the new name for the converted HK Tower, tenants earning between 25% and 60% AMI will not only have access to affordable housing that allows them to earn equity, but the location also will soon include a nonprofit restaurant offering reduced-cost meals. The building also has a Montessori school that offers free childcare for residents, according to Chris Parker, co-director at the Perpetual Housing Fund and director at Giv Group, a longtime nonprofit development company.

Parker explained the new wealth-building concept during a ribbon cutting ceremony Thursday for the 14-floor Arbor 515 tower, which is located at 515 E. 100 South in Central City. The tower was built in the 1980s as an office building, and it’s one of the most recent examples of office-to-residential conversion projects in Salt Lake City.

Parker explained the program, “takes the trade that LIHTC typically does, which is a developer fee for the developer and a long-term ownership for affordable rent for tenants, and takes the economic benefit of everything the developer would have made, and takes the majority of it and puts it back into the tenants’ hands.”

The former HK Building, now named the Arbor 515 tower.

He said the majority of the building’s annual cash flow would go directly back to tenants, adding that if or when the building is refinanced or sold, that money goes back to tenants in the form of a check. Those types of deals are multi-million dollar transactions, Parker said, meaning the direct payments to each unit would be tens of thousands of dollars.

“If you are making $20 an hour, a $20,000 payment might change your life,” Parker said Thursday. “So this building is not unlike any other building that might be financed in this way, but because it gives the money made from these projects to tenants, it gives a way to build a nest egg for people that would have had no shot to do so in the future.”

The building, which is already nearly at capacity, has received just over $12 million in total from the Salt Lake City Community Reinvestment Agency, according to a CRA spokesperson.

Among those singing Parker’s praises Thursday was Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, who thanked Parker for his vision and work. Cox told Parker during a press conference Thursday that he’s, “still processing what you’ve been able to do here. It seems not possible, but it also makes perfect sense, and bringing all those tools together in a way that changes people’s lives.”

But Parker doesn’t seem to be done with this type of housing model.

During the Thursday press conference, Building Salt Lake asked if the Giv Group director was planning to use this profit-sharing model on other projects in the future.

“We have acquired, or in the process of acquiring, several more parcels throughout the state,” Parker said. “We have a unique relationship with Salt Lake City, in some of their funding that came in will allow us to do 1,000 units in this city specifically. We have properties as far as Moab and up to Ogden that are currently in some level of pre-design. So yes, the goal is you prove it here, and thankfully, it’s worked. We’d like this to be a full Utah (solution) and really a regional solution to housing.”

Parker’s Giv Group purchased the historic Judge Building earlier this year, and given his success with Arbor 515, it’s possible the Downtown office building at 8 E. Broadway could be the latest office-to-residential conversion project in Salt Lake City.

Giv Group is also expected to develop another historic building, this time in Ogden. The Ogden City Council voted last year to buy the former U.S. Forest Service building with the expectation that Giv would later develop it. A proposal from the time of the December purchase indicated the building would be converted into 40 to 50 housing units for households at or below 65% AMI. That building would also include the Perpetual Housing Fund model, according to previous BSL reporting.

In addition to the school and restaurant, the Arbor 515 building will also have office space on the top floors dedicated to nonprofit organizations, which will also be charged reduced rents for the office space. Phase two of the project will include building another housing structure to the north where a parking garage currently sits.

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