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Originally Posted by Always Sunny in SLC
If the question is why we don't have more towers downtown than 215 is spot on when he says the location of downtown is driving this issue. SLC has a downtown that is tucked away and is not centrally located, so as the suburbs developed it has relocated that power away from downtown. If your downtown is centrally located and all the suburban development radiates more or less equally from there, the city center retains is status of influence and also is not as far of a commute as the region grows. This creates a situation where company owners and executive officers, who make these decisions where to locate their offices, know they don't have to commute as far. SLC is in a place where the power center has shifted South and many of those people are living 20-50 miles away from SLC.
If the question is why we don't have taller towers the answer is simple: block size. There is a strong correlation between block size and tower height. Portland, Seattle, Austin, Denver and even Phoenix have small blocks relative to SLC and not surprisingly have taller towers.
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Again that’s just another excuse. Every city has their own unique reasons why developers don’t need or maybe shouldn’t build taller towers. Look at Denver, they have MUCH more developable available land than Salt Lake does, and yet they are incredibly urban and dense compared to most other inland cities with endless available land to use. It is much cheaper to build in the burbs there and yet because of the increasing demand in the center city they keep building a great urban core.
All I’m saying is if there is real demand for high rises, developers will build them. If there is real demand then developers will take the risk and build taller buildings downtown, they do in every other city. Salt Lake is not different in this aspect. But since there is not that demand, developers are going to use the large blocks to their advantage and build safer smaller risk developments. Everything is about supply and demand.