To become downtown Salt Lake City's newest housing project, the Westgate warehouse, 328 W. 200 South, is becoming old again.

Co-owner Richard Gordon is converting one of his five buildings known as the Westgate Business Center into lofts. He is building penthouses on top of two of the buildings. In all, the Westgate Lofts project will feature 40 units and 25 live-work spaces that will range in size from 650-square-foot units to 2,500-square-foot penthouses. Prices will start at $149,500 and top out at about $680,000.

The first lofts could open by the end of April.

Residents never lived in the warehouses that once housed General Electric Supply Co., Sears Roebuck, Hood Rubber, Richmond Machinery and Mountain States Supply. But the plan is to make the lofts look "original."

"It's bringing the building back to what it would have been," loft designer Patrick Davis says.

Davis already lives in a downtown loft with his 3-year-old daughter and eschews homes with walls. He owns a custom furniture store across from Westgate, where he sells goods that mix new material with salvaged pieces.

And he will bring his style to the new lofts. He collected what he could from Westgate, such as warehouse doors, when construction crews gutted the interior. He is searching other downtown buildings and some out-of-state yard sales for more design features, such as restaurant kitchen equipment, old windows and signs, antique skylights. He even bought Murray High's old gym floor.

Davis says he may open a shop of such goods for prospective Westgate loft owners to browse when designing their living spaces.

"Every unit is going to have something architecturally significant that's unique," says Davis, who plans to buy one of the few lofts that will incorporate an indoor steel and glass garage door to separate spaces.

Gordon has wanted to develop housing virtually since he bought the five Westgate buildings in 1984. But back then, the neighborhood was scarred by abandoned buildings, half-buried railroad tracks and prostitution.

Now, Gordon carries a clip file full of articles about downtown developments in Utah and elsewhere. One says empty nesters are flocking to downtowns across nation. Another notes the popularity of loft living in Western cities.

The timing is clearly right for Gordon. His property is a block east of the The Gateway. A transit hub will open nearby along with a new TRAX light-rail line.

Other developers already have built downtown lofts with mixed success, but the soft loft market seems to have turned a corner.

Gordon says he has taken 25 reservations for his lofts, which will feature balconies, covered parking and storage units. There also will be a rooftop garden and a common room for gallery shows.

Luann Lakis is a real-estate agent for the Westgate lofts and can use her own experience in her sales pitch.

Lakis, her husband and four children left Orem and bought a loft in downtown Salt Lake City four years ago.

She likes that her 15-year-old son goes to poetry slams at the coffee shop below their home, hangs out at the new Main Library and plays video games at Gateway.

Lakis is one of 4,500 people who live downtown, according to the 2000 census. That number is growing; Westgate is one of 12 new housing projects scheduled or recently completed in and around downtown.

"A lot of people want a different lifestyle. They don't want to live in a suburban neighborhood," Lakis says.

She credits former Mayor Deedee Corradini, who decided to convert a railyard into what is now Gateway, for the turnaround.

"When we moved in, Gateway was train tracks and drug deals."

hmay@sltrib.com