Priced out? High-end development pushes out low-income residents who call downtown home

"I don't have to mess with utilities or anything like that," Sargent says. "I have one bill. That I can deal with. It's quiet; it's old; it's very convenient."

The people who live in the hotels — known as single-room occupancy housing, or SROs — are there for a host of reasons. SROs operate much like any other hotel: You can rent your room on a weekly or monthly basis. Utilities are included. There are no criminal background checks and no leases.

And the rooms are cheap. Rents at the Regis and Cambridge are the same for every room: $85 a week.

Although residents of the downtown SROs are largely comfortable where they are, city leaders see a need for something new.

The Regis, Cambridge and Salt Lake Blue, along with a few surrounding buildings, have been owned by the city's Redevelopment Agency since the end of 2002. The RDA bought the property with the idea of future redevelopment but has kept the SRO housing open in the meantime.

Mayor Rocky Anderson has called the hotels "slums," and City Council members decided changes needed to be made.

The council, acting as the RDA's board of directors, essentially put up the for-sale signs on the block April 17 by approving the terms of a request for proposals, seeking developers to buy and redevelop the property. Preference will be given to developers who would restore the old buildings rather than tear them down. Despite efforts by council members S�ren Simonsen and Jill Remington Love, historic preservation won't be required.

Residents don't know yet whether or when they will have to move. Given the choice, most of them say they'd rather not.

"After a year of moving around, I said, 'That's enough,"' one resident of the Regis Hotel said. "Next time I move, I hope it will be in a body bag."

City officials say they hope — but won't demand — that the new development will include some replacement SRO housing.

"As there tends to be more of a boom and more interest in people coming in, the value of properties goes up, and your neighbors across the street and next door are different," Councilwoman Nancy Saxton said. "So we have to look at, 'Is this the best location for subsidized or low-income housing, or is there a better location?"'

High-end development

At the end of the first quarter of 2007, no condos were available downtown for less than $100,000 and only four for less than $200,000, while two units were listed at more than $1 million, according to Babs DeLay, a member of the Salt Lake City Planning Commission and a real-estate broker who specializes in downtown residential sales.