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Owners of a 50-year-old downtown Salt Lake City building have launched $10 million in renovations to the South Temple office property, part of their quest for a higher profile in the central business district.

Work has begun on the white, 24-story tower at 136 E. South Temple, known to longtime residents as the University Club Tower, with plans for a new two-story lobby, a redesigned entry plaza, improved vistas from upper floors and a new and more distinct exterior.

The overhaul is expected to be completed by January. The 216,976-square-foot high-rise is also getting a new name: South Temple Tower.

Officials at the San Francisco-based real estate investment firm Maier Siebel Baber bought and sold the building in the 1990s, only to reacquire it in 2013 and launch the face-lift this year.

With construction of City Creek Center on Main Street, several skyscrapers and other major projects, "downtown changed," the company CEO and President Kenneth Baber said Wednesday.

"The entire center of gravity shifted north and east," Baber said. "We wanted to be by the transit and the [Mormon] temple and all of amenities that City Creek brought."

The South Temple Tower update is intended, ironically, to return it to some of its original historic character, said Steve Tovani, a senior vice president for Maier Siebel Baber who oversees the property. Instead of being replaced, decorative exterior panels have been unbolted and later will be reattached to a revamped limestone-based shell.

Similarly, he said, floor plans on upper stories are being reconfigured to create views of nearby iconic buildings — Joseph Smith Memorial Building, the Salt Lake LDS Temple and others — and give tenants a stronger sense of connection with the surrounding downtown.

The lobby's ceiling height will rise from 8 feet to 23 feet, Tovani noted, and that space will get new stone features, plastered walls and new art pieces.

Baber called the revamp "a final step in making this a Class A asset" — real estate parlance for a top-quality office property commanding higher rental rates. (A Salt Lake City team with CBRE Group is overseeing the tower's leasing and on-site management.)

In addition to South Temple Tower, Maier Siebel Baber owns an eight-building business park called Lone Peak Center Campus in Draper. The company formerly held the Triad Center, 300 West and North Temple, and HK Tower, a 14-story office tower at 515 E. 100 South.

With the direction Salt Lake City development is taking, Baber and Tovani said the company wants to expand its investments here.

Tony Semerad