Urbana

Urbana on Eleventh is a 29-unit condo complex in the heart of Sugarhouse that is almost complete. It is built on what used to be a parking lot.

This project is a perfect example of what can happen when a developer "gets it". They have covered parking on the first floor but it is completely hidden from the street. What you see from the street is the office space of the live/work units that they built into the project.

They have a great website that is as much a marketing piece for Sugarhouse as it is for their development:
www.urbanaoneleventh.com

Sugarhouse Streetcar

If you look at the picture below, you can see the faint outline of two rails, left over from a line that used to run up to the old Granite Furniture Building (about 1100 East), from the rail lines down near I-15.

 

I took this picture looking east from the paring lot of Sugarhouse BBQ (www.sugarhousebbq.com), located on 700 East, at about 2200 South. Before too long, you'll be able to take a Trolley from either the 2100 South TRAX station or from the heart of Sugarhouse to the east, and step off for a quick lunch of ribs or a pulled pork sandwich at one of the best BBQ joints in the city:

This streetcar line has support from Salt Lake City, South Salt Lake, local businesses, land developers, and many others. We're pretty much just waiting on funding  for this to be built. Developers and local officials are salivating over the development and redevelopment opportunities that this line can help stimulate.

There will be some design issues, such as dealing with utilities, and how to safely and efficiently cross 700 East and State Street, but those are being worked out.

The following link will take you to the official project site, sponsored by UTA:
http://www.rideuta.com/projects/sugarhouseTransitStudy/default.aspx

A train station with a garden next door

In 2005, UTA completed construction of a new TRAX light rail station on West Temple between 800 South and 900 South, providing residents with a quick 8 minute ride into downtown.

This station was added about 6 years after TRAX first opened. One of the main purposes of this new station was to promote redevelopment of the area, and it appears to be working (more on that in a later post). One of the side benefits was about 500 hundred more riders per day.

For now, the real estate next to the station is being used as a community garden.

It will take some time for this neighborhood to reach its potential as a bustling mini urban center full of shops and housing and people. In the meantime, community gardens such as this one provide a much better view than an empty field full of trash.