The former First Security Bank building at 400 South and Main has a new face, a new name and a bevy of new tenants, the property's owners said Friday.
The historic building, completed in 1955 and distinct in its architectural style, had remained largely dormant since the merger of First Security with Wells Fargo in 2002. But, its owners said Friday, it has undergone a massive renovation and will now serve as the corporate headquarters of Ken Garff Automotive Group.
The auto dealership group will occupy the top two floors, and the building bears the Garff name. Garff is an equity owner in the building with its principal owner, Logan-based Wasatch Property Management Inc.
"For 73 years, we have been the Ken Garff company, and dealerships have been associated with downtown Salt Lake City," said John Garff, president and chief operating officer of the company. He said the company had been looking for a place to consolidate its corporate offices, and Wasatch came with the right package.
"Based on the location, the history of the building and the management team from the equity owners — the combination of those things made our decision to come here," he said. "But also, staying in downtown Salt Lake was a very important part of where we ended up, a very important part of our decision. We have a lot invested in Salt Lake, materially and philosophically. Our history is in downtown Salt Lake as well."
On Friday, Wasatch also confirmed that the 131,000-square-foot Garff building is now fully leased, save for 4,000 square feet of retail space.
"It took a lot of hard work, two years of hold time and $12 million in rehabilitation, but it all worked out," said John A. Dahlstrom Jr., executive vice president and general counsel at Wasatch Property Management.
Wasatch originally wanted the property for the value of its parking facility, Dahlstrom said. However, in investigating the history of the 12-story tower, he said the company saw value in preserving the site.
"It was the first high-rise building built in Salt Lake after the Depression," he said. "It was a sign of improving times in the mid-century."
But it had also not undergone significant renovations since construction was completed in 1955, Dahlstrom said. That meant there was work to do.
"We gutted the tenant floors down to the steel, removed the asbestos and upgraded the seismic standard of the building," he said. Wasatch also worked to upgrade the exterior while keeping the feel of the original, internationally influenced architecture.
Wasatch bought the property for $6.2 million in 2003, a transaction marred by the ensuing wrangle with Salt Lake County District Attorney David Yocom, who wanted to raze the First Security building and build a new facility to house the district attorneys' offices.
"Numerous times, David Yocom threw in our faces that, 'This is a crummy, dilapidated, old building and I won't put my attorneys in it,' " Dell Loy Hansen, principal at Wasatch, said in a statement posted on the company's Web site. "They did, in closed session, tell us all the ways they would condemn us. There were some horrible statements."
According to the statement, Wasatch offered to design a brand new office structure beside the First Security building for the county attorneys to use during the renovation, but Yocom declined. Wasatch looked at its options, at other ways the property could be utilized.
Ultimately, the company decided it would create a facility that would be attractive to the legal community because of the building's proximity to federal and state court complexes, but did not limit itself to that.
Today, Dahlstrom said, more than half of the building is leased to law-related tenants, including two law firms and the Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Trustee.
Other tenants include Eagle Gate College, which has a long-term lease for the three-story annex, and Wells Fargo Bank, which will continue to operate its branch on the main floor. Skool Lunch has also signed on for a main-floor restaurant, Dahlstrom said.
And this week, Wasatch finalized an agreement with the U.S. Attorneys Office, currently located at 185 S. Main, for six floors of the building, Dahlstrom said, which brings the facility close to capacity.
"We held it through a pretty rough time in the market, and spent money to do it right," Dahlstrom said. "Then the market turned and we were able to benefit from that turn. So I guess it worked out."
Most of the tenants signed 10-year or other long-term leases, Dahlstrom said. Garff accepted Wasatch's offer of an equity position in the property, which should pretty clearly signal the company's intentions.
"We were looking for a long-term solution, not a five-year or 10-year lease," John Garff said. "Equity was an important part of that equation, so when that was offered to us as part of the package, it was a win-win situation.
"The First Security sign was up on that building for 50-plus years. We hope to see our name up there that long, too."
E-mail: jnii@desnews.com