Council hopes tower will 'spark new life on Main'

Plans for Salt Lake City's newest downtown office tower are moving forward — even after a major developer pulled out of the project amid a feud with Mayor Rocky Anderson.

On Tuesday, the City Council, acting as the board of directors of the city's Redevelopment Agency, unanimously gave initial approval to design drawings of the proposed 222 S. Main office tower, a 21-story office tower that will be built by Hamilton Partners.

"This is one of the most important buildings that has come into our city in a decade," Councilman Eric Jergensen said.

The tower is receiving a $6 million loan from the RDA to help it build a parking garage, which will include 100 spots open to the public year-round and free parking during special events. That loan sparked a hallway shouting match last month between Anderson and Dell Loy Hansen, whose Wasatch Property Management had been a partner in the building until Hansen announced plans to pull out of the project.

The design, which council members saw for the first time Tuesday, calls for what the architect called "a throwback to the modernist period" — a pair of thin towers curtained with glass on the east sitting atop a flamed-granite podium meant to provide consistency with the building's historic neighbors.

The top three levels will be a glass "veil," which Hamilton partner Bruce Bingham said will reflect sunlight in the day and be lighted from the inside in the evening, creating a lantern effect.

The ground level will front Main Street with recessed entryways that aim to create plazas and wider sidewalks, Bingham said.

Councilman S�ren Simonsen previously had said he hoped the building could bring restaurants and retail shops that would spark new life on Main Street after daytime workers leave downtown in the evening. Addressing those concerns, Bingham said Hamilton is now working to bring an after-hours restaurant to its retail component.

"We expect to accomplish that," he said. "We're going to pursue it aggressively. We'll subsidize if necessary."

However, council members still had some concerns with elements of the plan, including specifics such as signage making the parking entrances easy to find, light pollution to nearby buildings and pedestrian access to the middle of the block. The council's vote calls for a follow-up report from the developers on those issues.

Councilwoman Nancy Saxton , meanwhile, had a broader concern about the design.