Orem's Midtown Village project stalled but operational

OREM — When Edna H. Leavitt saw the scale model of Orem's Midtown Village displayed in University Mall, she knew she wanted to live there.

"I think I was one of the first ones to buy. I thought this would be a nice place to move to," Leavitt said. "They had this beautiful display at the mall. They have it in the tower here now."

The tower is a three-story office building that lies between the mostly completed south tower and the unfinished north tower of Orem's most notorious eyesore.

Located in the heart of the city, on State Street between 300 South and 400 South, Midtown Village is a monument to unrealized potential and dreams shattered on the rocks of economic reality.

Construction on the project ground to a halt in February 2008, and it has been mired in a morass of liens and lawsuits involving 45 banks, dozens of unpaid contractors and subcontractors, Orem city and as much as $100 million.

But for Leavitt, who proudly proclaims she'll be 92 in July, this is home. And she loves it.

"This is a beautiful project. Everyone I know who lives here likes it," she said. "If they could have just finished things, it would have been great."

Leavitt lives in one of the four condominium units in Midtown Village that were sold before the project stalled. Most of the owners, like Leavitt, are retirees.

Contractors completed 33 other residential units, but legal issues and the troubled home-loan industry make it impossible to sell any of them, even if someone wanted to buy.

"It's an ugly project as far as condo sales are involved," said Robert F. Babcock, the Salt Lake City attorney who is lead counsel for Big D Construction Corp., the general contractor for the project, as well as several of the subcontractors who have filed claims for up to $25 million in unpaid work. "Even if they wanted to sell right now, they couldn't."

As the housing market worsened, a banner advertising "Condos for Rent" went up on Midtown Village, and the south tower is now filled with young couples — many of them college students.

"This place is great," said Jim Kaiser, a BYU math major who lives in a three-bedroom apartment with his wife, who works full time. "It's really functional for us. We lived about a mile down the road, and we were able to upgrade from 1,000 square feet to 1,600 square feet. It was a good deal."