NEWS BRIEF: With Approval of a $38 Million Purchase of a 238,000-sq-ft Building, the University of Utah will Grow its Downtown Salt Lake City Presence

The University of Utah board of trustees has approved the purchase of the City Centre building in downtown Salt Lake City for $38 million.

According to the news release announcing the purchase, "The acquisition will help consolidate the (UofU's) downtown footprint."

According to Building Salt Lake, the City Centre building (and its attendant property) was put up for sale by its owner, Seattle, Washington-based Unico Properties, in October 2023 for an undisclosed price.

At the time it went on the market, the former home of the Salt Lake Chamber was only 51% occupied.

City Centre sits immediately to the north of the Salt Lake City/County building on the northeast corner of 400 South State Street, placing it less than two miles from the Interstate 80/Interstate 15 interchanges.

It's also worth noting that the property includes a 1.8-acre parking lot immediately to the west of the City Centre building, a very valuable and highly developable parcel of land in downtown Salt Lake City.

According to the UofU news release announcing the purchase, the university currently has several offices based in different locations in Salt Lake City.

In explaining the reasoning behind the purchase, John Creer, Chief Real Estate Officer of the UofU said,

“This allows us to position the university to build a downtown presence. ... We have a monetizable, developable corner that we can use for university growth, or, if we want to be optimistic, we monetize it in a variety of ways.”

The university announcement also noted that the projected cost to build new education buildings in Salt Lake City is nearly $400/square foot vs. the $159/square foot the UofU is paying for City Centre.

The news release also noted that

"The building includes 242 surface parking stalls and another 207 in the parking structure. It also is adjacent to the UTA TRAX red line which links directly to campus."

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