With its plans to build a skyscraper on Salt Lake City’s Main Street still stalled, a Texas-based developer announced it will ramp up conversion of a well-known office high-rise on nearby South Temple into luxury apartments.
One of the state’s tallest cranes is now mounted in front of the cream-colored tower on 136 E. South Temple — poised to start heavy exterior work on remaking the 59-year-old, known to longtime residents as the University Club Tower, into 217 high-end dwellings with lavish amenities.
At 25 stories, the tower will be renamed Seraph, a luxury living community remodeled for quality and sustainability and located near City Creek Center, a TRAX stop and other urban attractions — meaning, its homes are likely to rent at the high end of market rates.
Hines, the developer, has released new renderings for its elegant final visions of the lobby, pool, living units and rooftop deck highlighting the upgrade of the 217,000-square-foot building before its beige exterior cladding gets peeled off by Big-D Construction and new finishes are readied toward a completion date in late 2025.
Houston-based Hines said it had changed its initial designs and lowered the project’s apartment count from 255 units to add three-bedroom penthouses to the mix — in recognition, the firm said, of demand and a city emphasis on bringing more family-friendly housing to the urban core.
Dusty Harris, Hines senior managing director, said in a statement the global company hoped the remade apartment tower would “offer a new, reimagined product that will be highly attractive for this growing market.”
The project also apparently pencils out financially for the firm, while its proposal of more four years ago to build 400 apartments at the site of the demolished Utah Theater on Main Street in partnership with the city has languished.
Status on Main Street tower
Until the latest South Temple announcement, Hines has stayed largely quiet about its halted plans for a 31-story luxury skyscraper in place of the playhouse, also known to some historic preservationists and fans of the performance hall as the Pantages Theater.
The company rushed in April 2022 to demolish the historic and run-down venue and take the site off city hands as part of a deal with the Redevelopment Agency to replace it with a 400-apartment tower that would include some rent-subsidized units, a pocket park and other features.
In exchange for those promised concessions — and guarantees some of the theater’s historic elements would be documented and salvaged — the RDA handed the property to Hines for zero dollars.
A month after the razing, Hines sought an extension from the city on its construction timeline. It would eventually cite financial challenges and the loss of a crucial capital backer for the Main Street deal as lending tightened and slowed many commercial projects.
Two years later, the emptied site along Main Street still sits dormant — while Hines is now making clear the skyscraper development isn’t dead.
“We continue to be fully committed to the project and the Salt Lake community,” Harris said. “We’re dedicating significant time and resources to ensure the success of this project — despite unprecedented market changes over the last several months.”
There has been no definitive word nor new detail from City Hall on progress for that project. An RDA spokesperson would say only that “the RDA and Hines are currently negotiating modifications to the agreements and development schedule,” with no elaboration.
Conversions ‘are difficult’
Demand for new downtown housing at the luxury end and the project’s adaptive approach to construction, though, have made the South Temple conversion viable, according to Harris — despite obstacles.
The South Temple overhaul is valued at more than $70 million, according to city permits. It amounts to a prominent and telling office-to-residential conversion — not least for its timing — in downtown, where office occupancies continue to sag below pre-pandemic levels and housing at many price points is in short supply.
Depressed persistently by remote work since the pandemic, vacancies for offices in the Salt Lake City-Provo area hit a new peak in 2023, according to an industry report from commercial brokers at CBRE — wrapping the year with around a quarter of all space vacant and available.
At the same time, in-migration to Utah’s population centers, while slowing over the past year, remains at historic highs and the city’s growing downtown is buoying demand for housing for sale and rent.
The South Temple project, Harris said, is also a first worldwide for the privately held global development firm, which expects to use it as a model as it does more adaptive reuse projects.
Office-to-residential conversions “are incredibly difficult,” he said on a recent tour of the gutted tower after months of interior demolition that has stripped it to a shell.
Converting floor plans for what were once office, mechanical and parking levels of the former University Club Tower to residential use, Harris said, has meant removing or overhauling virtually all of its plumbing, electrical, heating and other systems. The remake is also adding a floor by converting the roof into a tree-lined gathering spot, with panoramic views.
Records show Hines has been working on the building’s internal overhaul since at least March 2023.
The conversion will deliver studios, one- and two-bedroom units along with three-bedroom penthouses sometime in fall 2025, with high-end finishes throughout such as marble surfaces and floor-to-ceiling glass. It also plays to vintage details of the building, built in 1965.
The overhaul will add a pool, clubroom, distinct rooftop lounge and other attractions to heighten its appeal to the well-heeled. The building’s familiar exterior and windows will also be redone, in more of a gray and metallic theme.
Hines said that improving sustainability is also driving aspects of its remake at South Temple, including the reuse of concrete and steel from the existing structure to lower the project’s carbon emissions.
Seraph, according to Harris, “represents a fusion of the past and the future,” and a move toward higher quality in Salt Lake City’s downtown living.
