Reports: Housing shortage main negative in healthy downtown SLC

A pair of reports released last week indicate that downtown Salt Lake City continues to grow its economic might but faces a need for more housing.

The “State of Downtown Economic Benchmark Report” and the “Attitudes and Perceptions of Downtown Regional Survey Results” were released by the Downtown Alliance, commercial real estate company CBRE and Salt Lake City.

The benchmark report indicates that 77,850 people work downtown, with about 62,000 in office jobs, 7,700 in restaurant jobs and 3,300 in retail. The total is up from 76,850 a year earlier. In 1990, about 49,150 people worked downtown.

Those downtown workers were paid $3.6 billion in wages last year, including $3.3 billion in office, $132.5 million in restaurants and $120.5 million in retail.

Downtown retail sales totaled a record $865.3 million last year, up from $837.6 million a year earlier. The lowest figure during the past decade was $580.5 million in 2011. Of last year’s total, $388.7 million was spent on eating and drinking, followed by $180.8 million in clothing and shoe sales.

The report indicates that downtown Salt Lake City has 11.9 million total square feet of office space, 4.4 million square feet of retail space, $7.2 billion in total property value and 33,000 parking spaces. It has 84.2 vacant or underused acres, and downtown office vacancy is 13.7 percent.

Hotel occupancy is 70.9 percent. A total of 64 citywide conventions attracted 243,000 delegates and produced $226 million in spending by convention attendees in 2017.

Still, downtown needs continued housing development in all income brackets, officials said. While still relatively affordable compared to other downtown across the country, downtown Salt Lake City is beginning to feel the growing pains of a rapidly expanding urban center.

The reports also indicate that both startup and expanding tech companies are locating to formerly vacant historic office buildings and underutilized retail spaces, with tech companies choosing downtown to attract a diverse workforce with amenities and cultural experiences that can’t be found elsewhere in Utah.

The survey results show that during the past six months, the average person visited downtown Salt Lake City nearly eight times for dining, nearly five times for shopping, more than four times for entertainment and twice for religious activities. The number of dining visits grew from 5.83 in 2015 to 7.9 last year.

Among those who visited at least once in the past six months, the highest percentage was by people making more than $100,000 a year.