A planned development meant to perk up one of Salt Lake City's oldest neighborhoods is on its way to becoming reality.
Howa Capital earlier this month received final approval from the Salt Lake City Council, acting as the Redevelopment Agency board of directors, for Marmalade, a five-acre mixed-use project in the west Capitol Hill neighborhood.
"The important thing for this particular area was we needed something that would provide a residential and commercial anchor to the entire neighborhood," said Councilman Eric Jergensen, whose district includes Capitol Hill. "This project will provide the long-term foundational strength for this whole neighborhood, especially along 3rd West, which has really needed redevelopment for a long, long time."
The Marmalade project will be built on land the RDA bought in the late 1990s along 300 West between 500 North and 600 North. Once the development is finished, it will have three residential buildings with a total of 91 condominiums and townhouses.
It will also be home to a number of retail spots meant to have a neighborhood feel — no big boxes or large retailers, but services such as dry cleaners, small restaurants, coffee shops. Already on board are Tsunami Sushi, Leone's Dry Cleaning, a Barbacoa restaurant, a Spotted Dog Creamery and an Aveda salon.
"It's about the neighborhood," Howa development director Dru Damico said. "We want to build something organic."
Neighbors and developers also hope for a grocery store, although that's proving to be a bit more difficult. The problem is that the site is better-suited to a smaller grocer — "more of a specialty grocer," somewhere around 12,000 square feet, Damico said — but few grocery chains have interest in building stores on that scale.
"We're still actively seeking a grocer," Damico said. "It's not off the table at all ... there have been a couple of groups that have been interested."
Neighbors and city officials see the development as part of a "gentrification" trend that is occurring in the area, Jergensen said.
All the housing in the development will be for sale, rather than for rent, and it will range from one-bedroom, 950-square-foot condos around $284,000 to 2,200-square-foot townhouses as costly as $695,000. A little more than half the housing will be two-bedroom condos, expected to cost between $419,000 and $589,000.
A market analysis Howa commissioned suggested that about 60 percent of the housing should be targeted toward the "creative class" and single professionals. Secondary to that market will be new families and second-home buyers.
"I think it's a good thing," Capitol Hill Community Council chairwoman Polly Hart said. "Upping the income is happening anyway. It's not going to be caused by the Marmalade. Marmalade is just getting on the boat."
Jergensen said that while the housing is pricey, it's more affordable than much of the housing being built in other parts of the city, including downtown.
"There's a lot of gentrification of the neighborhood, and that's exciting to see," he said. "Our hope is that parents will come back into the neighborhood and realize this is a great place to raise kids."
Damico said interest has been high in the housing, with about 50 percent of the first-phase housing already reserved. He expects the residential units will start being sold sometime around April, shortly after a March 28 ground breaking gets the project underway. He said some of the retail on the west side of 300 West could open this fall, with the first residents moving in in spring or summer 2008.
Some area residents have expressed concern in community-council meetings that some of the residential buildings, planned to reach five stories, or about 60 feet in height, will be too tall for the neighborhood. But Hart said that because the development is at the bottom of a steep hill, most neighboring one- and two-story buildings will be above the development.
Marmalade will be built with an eye to environmental sustainability. All buildings — residential, retail and office space — will meet the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards. They will include energy-efficient appliances, and recycled materials will be used throughout the development.
More information on the project is available at liveatmarmalade.com.
E-mail: dsmeath@desnews.com