(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Sim Gill, Salt Lake County District Attorney, shows the lock boxes for guns, as he gives a tour of the 5th floor of the new Salt Lake County District Attorney building in Salt Lake City, Friday, March 9, 2018.
Two years after crews broke ground on the new Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office building, employees started moving their things inside Friday.
Although construction took only two years, District Attorney Sim Gill said the building — on 500 South about 100 yards from the Matheson Courthouse — has been about 30 years in the making.
The project was first conceived under former District Attorney Dave Yocom, who envisioned one building that was owned by the county and could hold the entire county attorney’s office.
Yocom hatched the idea in 1986, as he and attorneys worked out of a “rat-infested” and “insect-infested” building across the street from the old courthouse on 400 South. He eyed the land the new building sits on, but the landowners wouldn’t sell it, Yocom said at Friday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony.
When Gill took over as district attorney in 2010, he said one of his goals was to move his office into that space. He accomplished it as he nears the end of his second term and begins his bid for a third.
“Man, I tell you,” Yocom said about Gill, “that guy is tenacious.”
The new building is part of a $64 million project that includes the main district attorney headquarters in Salt Lake City and a secondary building in West Jordan, to bridge the gap between downtown and the county’s growing south end.
Operating in the county-owned building, instead of leasing, is projected to save taxpayers about $13 million over the next 25 years, Gill said.
Over the next weeks, Gill’s nearly 300-person staff will move into the building. As Salt Lake County grows — projections estimate 600,000 more people by 2065 — Gill said the office will accommodate more attorneys and staff, as needed.
The new building has space for both criminal and civil prosecutors, in addition to support staff. It also includes a day care facility for employees and civilians who use the building, a small gym, counseling spaces for trauma victims and convertible training rooms for attorneys and law enforcement. Employees also get a top-floor break room, supplied with three refrigerators, four microwaves and a private balcony overlooking the courthouse and the Wasatch Mountains.
Windows and glass are prominent throughout the building, which has a “light well” — a large square cutout with skylights at the top that is carved into the middle of the building — that brings natural light into offices on the west side of the building, which doesn’t have windows.
The glass is meant to symbolize transparency, which Gill said is a core value of his office.
“It’s about being in this space where you see the activity and the action that’s occurring. It’s about that shared effort. Everybody is working. Nothing is hidden. It’s open and accessible,” Gill said.
Among the sleek plastic and metal furniture that decorates the identical office spaces, Gill’s office stands out by contrast, stocked with wooden tables and chairs salvaged from the old City and County Building.
Gill said that detail, too, is by design.
“This is our connection back to the history of the state. It comes from one of our oldest public buildings, and it is our connection to our past as we move into the future,” he said.
At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams emphasized that the construction project finished on time and under budget.
He said officials are now looking into another opportunity to save money: selling off the unused parcel of land west of the building for commercial development.
Money made in that transaction will go back into paying for the building, he said.
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