The anchor tenant at 222 S. Main St. will be the law firm of Holland & Hart, which will occupy the building's top three floors, comprising 67,000 square feet. The law firm now has offices at 60 E. South Temple St. in Eagle Gate Tower.

Bruce Bingham, principal of the Chicago-area development company, said pre-leasing activity continues on the rest of his project, which he estimates will cost about $137 million to construct. Okland Construction will be the general contractor.

"We have about 20 percent of the building pre-leased, which is very good," he said, noting that he is confident of chances to get a nice sit-down restaurant on the ground floor.

The building should be completed by July 2009. When Hamilton Partners first announced in 1999 it wanted to build the 425,000-square-foot structure building on Main Street between 200 and 300 South, Bingham estimated it could be completed by 2002.

But that wasn't to be. Office vacancies in the area began to rise dramatically in the early 2000s, and Hamilton couldn't find a major tenant to commit to the project. Construction remained on hold until market conditions improved.

Those conditions improved dramatically over the past two years as demand for office space took off amid Utah's booming economy. Hamilton Partners found its financing partner in Utah businessman Dell Loy Hansen.

But at the last minute, Hansen pulled out. Because Salt Lake City is considered such an attractive area to construct an office building, Hamilton said he had no problems finding a new financing partner - a pension fund that invests in real estate that he declined to identify. That delayed construction only by a couple of months.

"We were fortunate to find another partner so quickly," Bingham said.

Because the office tower is being built in an area that needs revitalization, the Salt Lake City Redevelopment Agency will provide Hamilton Partners with an incentive worth as much as $6 million over 20 years.

As a result of the city's investment, Bingham has agreed, among other things, to provide 100 public parking spaces and open the garage for as many as 10 nights a year to public parking at the RDA's request, said D.J. Baxter, RDA executive director.

Baxter said he's encouraged by Bingham's efforts to try to get a restaurant in the ground level of the building.

"A restaurant would be very helpful in increasing evening foot traffic on Main Street," he said.

lesley@sltrib.com