Not the part about him and his wife, Cleves, moving to Salt Lake City and renovating a commercial building on Main Street into their single-family home (though that is unusual in this city's downtown market). It's why they're doing it that is a shock.
"This is a cleaner, gentler, kinder - just nicer - New York City. Main Street is like Fifth Avenue. It is a city. It does have the sounds," he says as a TRAX train clangs outside the café. "You can get out and walk. You have Lamb's six doors away."
There also is the graffiti in the alley behind his future house at 149 S. Main. And a homeless man camped out in the doorway of a vacant theater across the street.
It feels like a slice of the Big Apple. It feels like home - at least to the 60-year-old Weber, who bought what was the Main Street Coffee House last year, though he and his wife are not living there yet. They hope to move in by November.
For now, the entrance is made of plywood. Contractors are laying down infrastructure to heat what will be stained-concrete floors. They are working on a two-car garage that will open onto the alley. They have ripped away plaster to get to the original brick.
The 17.5-foot-wide, 100-foot-long building provides a sizable chunk of living space: 5,000 square feet. To comply with downtown zoning, the house also will include 1,000 square feet for a business, perhaps an art gallery or sandwich shop.
The home will include two elevators, two bedrooms (including a master suite), two offices, an exercise room and laundry space along with a loft-like kitchen and living room that lead to a balcony overlooking Main Street.
And don't forget the swimming pool in the basement.
The official name of the structure is the Weber Building, but it has come to be known as that-house-with-a-pool. Cleves Weber, 66, has cancer and the 4-foot-deep pool will be used for her physical therapy.
Part of the design is meant to highlight the Webers' extensive and eclectic art collection, says architect Jim Darling. The space in the brick wall once used for a fire extinguisher will house art, for example.
The project, from buying the building to its renovation, will cost $1.2 million, Weber says. He has asked and received preliminary approval for a $300,000 loan from the city's Redevelopment Agency.
Finding tenants, especially homeowners, for vacant downtown buildings is what city officials are clamoring for, and RDA Director Dave Oka hopes others follow the Webers' lead.
"There is some really cool stuff on the second floor of those [Main Street] buildings," Oka says. "We're very interested in seeing how this affects Main Street."
Steve, a big man who keeps his long gray hair in a ponytail, says he and Cleves met while working in the restaurant business in New York. She was a baker. He sold restaurant equipment.
They have moved a lot, opening restaurants along the way. Their most recent home was in Maui, Hawaii. Salt Lake City became their next destination after friends from the island moved to this desert.
At one time, Weber says he didn't care much for Utah's capital. It was a place to drive through on the way to Moab. Then the couple visited after the 2002 Winter Olympics.
"I was blown away by the city," Weber recalls. "It had changed considerably, or I had changed. It seemed to have become much more cosmopolitan. There were loft buildings."
And restaurants. The Webers are self-described "foodies," so good restaurants are important. Weber can name several of his favorites within blocks of his Main Street stoop - Caffe Molise, Bambara, Cucina Toscana, Martine. He also likes the proximity to the airport. The Webers can leave quickly and their three grown children, spread through the country, can visit easily.
He jokes about putting a rusted-out lawn mower on his future deck, a reminder of the yard work he won't have to do.
"This is going to be home. Now we just want to stay put, relax, enjoy what we have."
A New York-style loft far from Fifth Avenue.
hmay@sltrib.com
