Four years after developers announced that the old Centre Theatre would be razed and a 14-story glass and granite office building constructed on the site, Broadway Center is finished.
New tenants are moving in, the $32 million, 240,000-square-foot tower is nearly half leased and everyone involved with the long-delayed project can breathe a sigh of relief."It's turned out to be a lovely complex, especially now that everything is copacetic," said Bill D'Evelyn, president of Commerce Properties, the building's management company, leasing agent and one of its newest tenants.
Broadway Center was developed by Broadway Center Ltd., a limited partnership for which the general partner is Pentalon Corp. Pentalon's two principals are Utah real estate developers Fred Morris and Richard Workman.
"This is the hottest office building in town right now," said D'Evelyn. "If everything that is on the table comes through, we will have only 55,000 square feet left to lease."
Still "on the table," said project manager Richard Nordlund, is a "large company" that he is currently negotiating with for 53,000 square feet in the tower. "We can't mention them yet, but they are close to signing leases," said Nordlund, who works for Commerce Properties.
Assuming that deal doesn't fall through, Broadway Center will be 67 percent leased, Nordlund said. Based on the completion date, he said initial projections were to have the building fully leased by next June. "But the way things are going, we could be filled up sooner. Once the building was finished and people started walking through, interest really perked up."
Along with Commerce Properties, tenants already in or scheduled to occupy their space in coming weeks include Edwards & Daniels Architects, the project's architect; Metro National Title; State Line Properties; Charles Schwab, discount securities broker; Panic Hair & Nail Design; Cineplex Odeon six-screen movie theater; and Holme, Roberts & Owen, a Denver law firm that is taking 20,000 square feet to open a Salt Lake office.
Two other tenants signed leases this month and will be moving in over the summer. Watkiss, Dunning & Watkiss, a new Salt Lake law firm, will take 7,100 square feet, and Phoenix-based Snell & Wilmer, said to be the largest law firm in Arizona, will lease a full floor. Snell & Wilmer has been subleasing space in another downtown office building for the past 18 months, said Nordlund.
Legers, a restaurant established in Park City, is also in the complex, and a Blimpie eatery will open next month on the ground level of the parking terrace.
Broadway Center also includes a $5 million, 519-stall parking garage east of the tower that is owned and was constructed by the Salt Lake Redevelopment Agency. Revenues from the parking go to Broadway Center Ltd. under a 30-year lease while Broadway pays a monthly fee to the RDA. An enclosed "bridge" connects the garage with the tower.
If Broadway Center is now "copacetic," that was not always the case. First announced in July 1988, the theater was razed, the site graded and footings put in place on schedule. Then the developer's construction loan fell through and the project came to a halt.
Scheduled for an April 1991 opening, Broadway Center's developers had to watch while projects
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that started later than theirs - One Utah Center and the Delta Center - surged ahead on a fast track to completion.
"Our timing was bad," said D'Evelyn. "Between the savings and loan collapse and the problems that banks were having, office building loans were nearly impossible to find. In fact, any loan for real estate other than single-family homes was the kiss of death."
The predictable result for the building was the loss of some tenants who exercised "out clauses" in their leases. "They walked because they were supposed to be in last fall," said D'Evelyn. "Also, some prospective tenants had their own problems."
After talking to some 200 potential lenders, the developers finally secured $18 million in construction and permanent financing from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Pension Fund, based in Washington, D.C.
Pentalon's general and limited partners have invested $9 million in the project, a figure that Nordlund terms "a ton of equity." He noted that in the 1980s, most buildings were leveraged to the hilt. "The owners had very little of their own money in them."
Now the hard times seem to be over for Broadway Center. Peter Emerson, a principal in architect Edwards & Daniels, says a lot of thought went into planning and construction of Broadway Center and the results will remain long after the construction delays are forgotten.
Sharp-eyed visitors to the building will notice something familiar about the art-deco light fixtures in the foyer. Salvaged from the lobby of the Centre Theatre during demolition, they were refurbished and now give the new building a touch of 1930s ambience.
Emerson said he incorporated other features reminiscent of the old theater into the tower, the most obvious being the way it is positioned on the site. The entry faces diagonally across the intersection, just as the Centre's box office and lobby did. The radial face of the building also recalls the theater's circular marquee. Other design elements throughout the building's public areas reflect the theater's art-deco motif.
"We felt the public should be able to relate to the building, its entrance and sidewalk," said Emerson. "We didn't want to create a blank wall for people, and we didn't want them to have to enter the tower to access the street-level retail businesses. The southern end of downtown is coming back strong, and we are now part of that."