December 24, 2025

Next to Lumen Field, a tailgater's dream hotel?

Photo by Brian Miller [enlarge]

Hospitality may be the best route to go for the 820 First Ave. S. site.

Imagine you're walking to a game, heading south on First, south of Pioneer Square. Now veer left along the old Railroad Way — recently remade into a nice new plaza — with the Gridiron condo building on your left, and that new sport bar at its pointy south tip.

What's that squat little navy gray building across South Charles Street? The one with the lingering old signage for Coastal Environmental Systems? That's the vacant 820 First Ave. S. office building, where leasing signs have vainly fluttered for years now. Coastal merged with Campbell Scientific in 2016, then consolidated offices in Salt Lake City four years later.

The empty two-story building is a century old, is on the city's list of unreinforced masonry structures (deemed “medium risk”), and offers about 20,000 square feet — plus its east and north parking lots, which are always packed on game days, no matter the price.

Family-run Cederstrand Rentals LLC acquired the property in a 1993 bank sale, then paying all of $580,000. It's never been offered for sale, to the DJC's knowledge, and there's no broker obviously now representing the owner. But, possibly as a prelude to marketing the triangle for redevelopment, a new hotel plan emerged last week.

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The triangular property offers about 12,767 square feet, with commercial zoning up to 85 feet.

Bumgardner Architects filed the eight-story proposal, perhaps to total around 125,000 square feet. The number of rooms isn't yet specified; two levels of underground parking are mentioned, with the valet entry on First. The scheme carries a nominal value of $28 million, and includes a restaurant with outdoor seating on Occidental.

The triangular property offers about 12,767 square feet, with commercial zoning up to 85 feet. Apartments could go higher.

Though the site is in what we call the Stadium District, it's also in the south dogleg of the Pioneer Square Preservation District. Thus, if it were to proceed in earnest, the proposal would require the district board's OK.

In the plan's favor, the location is a sports fan's dream for in-room tailgating. Concertgoers, too, might be enticed to lodge overnight when Taylor Swift or Coldplay are in town. The nearby Populus, citizenM and Silver Cloud hotels are all doing good business. King Street Station, Pioneer Square and our revitalized waterfront are also big tourist draws.

On the other hand, preservation board approval and a separate city building permit would take years to achieve. Cederstrand isn't a developer, but it could sell or ground lease the property. And the safest, surest short-term play would be demolition for an expanded parking lot.

City records note that the building, which is both a pre- and post-viaduct structure, was heavily modified by the old viaduct ramps. The green west facade, in a vaguely Streamline Moderne style, came in the 1950s remodel. The building was originally served by rail and truck on Occidental, with its loading docks still intact.