SLC Planning Commission approves debated Sugar House hotel project

A rendering shows a proposed 90-foot, seven-story hotel on the corner of 2100 South and 1300 East next to Sugar House Park in Salt Lake City. Rezoning the lot to allow the project to proceed has received support from the Salt Lake City Planning Commission. (Photo courtesy FFKR Architects, provided by the Salt Lake City Planning Division)

One major hurdle down, one major hurdle to go. 

The Salt Lake City Planning Commission has voted to forward a Millcreek developer’s request to build a 90-foot-tall hotel in Sugar House to the city council.

After hours of debate, the commission voted 7-1 to take the city planning staff’s recommendation, side with Magnus Hotel Management and recommend that the controversial project be given the go-ahead.

Approval to amend the area’s general plan and zoning map and allow construction of the hotel now lies with the Salt Lake City Council. The council will hold a public hearing before voting, but when that might happen has not been announced.

Magnus has plans for a 145-room hotel to be built on a parcel of private land at the corner of 2100 South and 1300 East. The structure would include a coffee shop, three ground-floor-level retail spaces and a rooftop restaurant.

Members of the planning staff submitted a report to the planning commission that said they recommended the hotel be approved, writing that the plan “aligns with the Sugar House Plan and citywide growth policies, which support higher-density, mixed-use development near transit corridors and key intersections.”

The 0.82-acre lot where the hotel would be built was once home to a Sizzler restaurant that was torn down in 2024 after several failed attempts to convert the building to other uses. Other ideas for the site have included a multifamily housing complex and a Kum & Go gas station and convenience store, both of which failed to gain approval.

John Potter, founder and CEO at Magnus Hotel Management, presented the company’s plans to the commission, saying the hotel would be an upscale, boutique hotel that would have its own identity but would be under the Hilton umbrella. He said that hotels offer a unique blend of private and public uses, as the ground floor would largely be open to the public, which isn’t always the case for multifamily housing buildings.

The project would require upzoning the land from MU-3 to MU-8, which would increase the site’s allowable building height from 40 feet to 90 feet. The rezone is also necessary in order to build any hotel, a use that isn’t allowed in MU-3 zones.

The project, which would abut Sugar House Park, has drawn criticism from opponents who say it would block Wasatch Mountain views, worsen traffic and erode the park’s open feel.

“Putting a very heavy-looking building of 90 feet in height is not acceptable,” Judi Short, vice chair and land use chair of the Sugar House Community Council, said in a Sept. 11 letter to the commission.

In his Oct. 10 letter to the commission, Juan Arce-Larreta, board chair of the Parley’s Rails, Trails and Tunnels (PRATT) Coalition, warned the hotel would negatively impact trails and the Sego Lily Plaza, part of a larger work in the area known as The Draw, which includes major sculptural elements west of 1300 East.

Several Sugar House residents spoke in opposition to the hotel proposal during the commission’s open comment period, with their main issues being increased traffic congestion, excessive building height so close to the park and a lack of community benefit. A few comments were also heard in support of the hotel.

But following an extended period of back-and-forth debate, the approval seemed to come down to maintaining consistency in the neighborhood’s community plan.

“I think to build better communities, it’s actually more beneficial to have two sides of the street and the four corners of the street zoned similarly,” Commissioner Brian Scott said before the vote to approve the plan and forward it to the council.