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Shopkeepers, artisans and residents on a well-recognized downtown Salt Lake City block shouldn't worry about evictions from the historic building they now call home, their new landlord says.
A leading official with Seattle-based Timberlane Partners said the firm bought the century-old Eccles Browning Warehouse on West Pierpont Avenue in late January with plans to keep the building standing and retain as many of the existing 30 or so tenants as possible.
John Chaffetz, co-founder and principal of Timberlane, sought to tamp down speculation among tenants that the building on Pierpont (240 South) between 300 West and 400 West had changed hands in advance of demolition to make way for residential development.
"We've never torn a building down," Chaffetz said of his real-estate investment company, formed in 2011. "We're attracted to it for the quirkiness and the architecture. It's the weirdest building you could possibly buy if you wanted to tear it down."
The blond-bricked structure on Pierpont and its shops are associated with Artspace, a nonprofit arts group that leased the site until 2008. Several Pierpont tenants said last week they were seeking alternate digs, partly in frustration at a lack of information from the new owners.
Chaffetz said he hopes to improve tenant relations over time as the company studies its options.
"We are long-term people,'' he said. "We don't need to do anything dramatic soon.''
Chaffetz likened the Eccles Browning site to a Timberlane project in Seattle known as The Ludlow, a mixed-use project on East Pike Street near the famed Pike Place Market. There, he said, some "funky, beloved businesses" thrive alongside 52 residential units at what Timberlane considers its marquee property in the Emerald City.
Along with projects in western Washington and east Los Angeles, Timberlane also owns The Mercer in Salt Lake City, a 73-unit apartment project built in 2013 at 556 E. 300 South, near Trolley Square mall.