One of the larger residential buildings downtown is the Metro condominiums on 200 East and approximately 350 South. The 117-unit building will be seven floors and is scheduled to open in fall 2007. Demand for the condos has been high, even though the units don't have price tags and are more than a year away from completion.

"Absolutely, without question, I see it as part of a bigger boom," said Andrew Pratt, the broker for the Metro condos. "It all works together."

The city collects money on building, electrical, plumbing and other permits based on the value of a project, so the larger a project's worth, the more money the city makes. The jump in large, expensive projects has meant more work for city inspectors and plan reviewers.

To fill that work, the City Council, in this year's budget, approved money to restructure the building-plans office to maske it a "one-stop shop," with one counter that will give clients access to all the city departments that need to approve plans — building, planning, engineering, transportation, fire department, public utilities.

Goff hopes to hire for those positions within a few months to get the one-stop shop set up before demand from the mall renovation gets too strong.

"We are seeing the front end of, I think, two or three vigorous years of non-residential construction, and a lot of that will be in Salt Lake City because of what's going on downtown," Wood said. "We're just seeing the beginnings of it."

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E-mail: kswinyard@desnews.com