It's one of the few remaining spots in Salt Lake City with a concentration of local shops - an urban dweller's dream.
Is it in jeopardy?
Salt Lake City Councilman Soren Simonsen thinks so. He represents Sugar House and says the city's recent rezoning of the community's business district could doom such local shops once the land is redeveloped.
The new zone allows up to eight-story buildings on some blocks. That's shorter than what used to be allowed, 10 stories. But it's taller than the traditional two-story structures now around Highland Drive and 2100 South.
"The only tenants you can justify with that kind of development [are] national chains. Local merchants just can't afford to stay there," says Simonsen, an architect and urban planning consultant. "We seem to keep upzoning areas that are successful and it drives them away, and to me that's pretty frustrating."
The block seen as ripe for development is where Granite Furniture sits. It includes about 30 other shops and even more offices between 2100 South and Sugarmont Drive, and between Highland Drive and McClelland Street.
Redevelopment is years away, according to two of the three main property owners who could be reached. But tenants are buzzing about it now.
"All these rumors and things [are] circulating around, and they are unfounded," says Craig Meacham, who owns land on Highland Drive and will be meeting with an architect and the city's Redevelopment Agency to discuss possible redevelopment plans.
Still, "It's doing fine as far as I'm concerned. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. At some point it [redevelopment] will take place."
He says he likes the local shops, but acknowledges rents will jump "substantially" in new, taller buildings.
"I've told all of those tenants if we did do something, I would knock on their door and make that opportunity to them first. The problem is going to be whether they can afford it or not," he says.
A few tenants on the Granite block, but not on Meacham's property, said they couldn't afford higher rents and would consider closing completely.
"It doesn't bother me," says Belinda Heise, owner of Cobwebs, an antiques and toy shop at 1054 E. 2100 South, filled with such items as Schilling spice tins, Star Wars figures and old-fashioned brooches. "If they tell me to leave, I'll just quit. I'd probably just do eBay."
Losing local businesses would bother Matthew Airmet, found smoking recently outside Sugarhouse Coffee.
"This neighborhood reminds me so much of Chicago and San Francisco," he says. He likes the mix of people Sugar House draws, from the elderly to teens with Mohawks, to strippers shopping at the Blue Boutique. "It's an urban feel out here in the Rocky Mountain desert."
Marci Lambros, owner of the three-month-old Great Grains Cereal Bar, has heard rumors that a Meier & Frank department store could be built on the block.
"All the national chains are so generic," she says. Sugar House "is the only place in Salt Lake that has this type of area where anybody can set up a shop and be successful."
Darryl Erdmann is part of a thriving artists community on the block in a section called the Rockwood Artists Studios. He runs Chroma Gallery, with prime space facing 2100 South. He doesn't want to see another Sugar House Commons - the redevelopment project to the east of the Granite block filled with national chains - replace his space.
"Once you cleanse an area, you lose all character, you lose the quaintness, the old buildings," Erdmann says, standing in his gallery full of contemporary art. "All of the small shops, all of the small businesses will disappear and probably be replaced by a T-mobile telephone office."
Landowner Dave Johnson owns Rockwood and says he isn't eager to displace the artists.
"I don't think I'd be interested in developing it if I didn't have a solution for the artists there," he says. "We would probably be happy keeping it the way it is."
But the city's Redevelopment Agency, which is behind the Sugar House Commons project, is eager to redevelop the Granite block and anticipates property owners will make requests for money soon. The agency is overseen by the City Council.
"I don't know why there's such a strong push from the Redevelopment Agency and others that we have to redevelop the Granite block," Simonsen says, rattling off a list of the thriving, existing shops - from the galleries to the coffee shop.
"These are the things any urban designer will say are great assets for a community. Somehow we're saying, 'We gotta make it better.' "
Simonsen, who wasn't on the council when it voted in December to change the zoning, plans to seek ways to monetarily help displaced local tenants.
The new zone is meant to spur more residential development to create a 24-7 walkable, vibrant community. On the Granite block, for example, developers must build housing if they want a structure taller than 30 feet, or about two stories. The zone also provides a way to preserve the feel of the historic two-story buildings.
Will the zone harm local business? Lex Traughber, the city planner who wrote the new zoning, doesn't know.
"That's just speculative."
hmay@sltrib.com
