Downtown Salt Lake City is getting another luxury hotel after a New Orleans-based developer confirmed this week that it resumed work on a new 10-story building at the highly seen corner of West Temple and 400 South.

Executives with Domain Companies announced Wednesday they’d secured a deal for $102 million in private financing for the hotel project at 370 S. West Temple, with arrangements in place for IHG Hotels & Resorts’ Kimpton luxury brand to operate the new 216-key facility once it opens.

“This is a major step forward in bringing this exciting project to life,” Matt Schwartz, co-CEO of Domain Cos., said in a statement, adding that it ”will provide Salt Lake City with a word-class luxury lifestyle hotel experience right in the bustling downtown district and set a new standard for hospitality in the market.”

Domain Companies had pursued the luxury mid-rise hotel on that 1.38-acre open parcel just west of the federal courthouse since at least 2021. It was proposed along with a much taller, 367-apartment skyscraper set to be built next to it. That building was tentatively dubbed Soren.

Soren — which city planning documents say could stand 25 stories or more — is still not off the table, a spokesperson for Domain told The Salt Lake Tribune, but details are sketchy.

“What we can say about the residential project next door is that the hotel is part of a larger mixed-use project with a residential component,” a spokesperson with the New York City-based public relations firm Heller said. The spokesperson did not elaborate.

Back on the drawing board, five years later

Both projects had fallen dormant since the company first announced them and submitted building applications in late 2021 and early 2022 announcements. The pause was part of a wider slowdown for many large commercial real estate projects in Utah’s capital.

In mid-February, though, construction crews for Ogden-based Wadman Corp. suddenly resumed surface prep work and dirt removal from on the fenced lot at the northwest corner of 400 South and West Temple, a move accompanied by a new request at City Hall to certify the site’s downtown zoning status.

Domain Companies’ funding deal with Cottonwood Group now puts the hotel on schedule for completion in the first part of 2028.

Officials at Domain said the new mid-rise hotel in Salt Lake City will feature 7,000 square-feet of meeting space, indoor and outdoor terraces, a state-of-the-art fitness center and spaces for live events — all with with the aim of “making it a destination for visitors and locals alike.”

Under food and beverage managers with Kimpton, the hotel is to have a rooftop bar and restaurant on the ground floor. A so-called lifestyle hotel with a wellness focus, the project has been designed by architects with Chicago-based Solomon Cordwell Buenz.

Domain’s existing hotels are well-reputed luxury properties that were build in historic buildings — the boutique Maison Métier and a lifestyle hotel called The Barnett, both located in New Orleans.

The company is also the firm responsible for The Exchange, a new three-building residential and commercial complex built at the corner of 300 East and 400 South. That large mixed-use project has 412 apartments, including luxury and affordable units; 30,000 square-feet of coworking spaces which Domain operates under its brand, The Shop; as well as 17,000 square-feet of retail spaces.

Downtown hotel boom continues

The new Domain hotel would combine “a premier downtown location” with the developers’ extensive experience in hospitality and the global recognition of Kimpton as a top hotel brand, said Mark Green, chief investment officer at Cottonwood Group, the private equity real estate firm backing the project.

“We are pleased to provide the construction financing,” Green said, “and support the delivery of what we believe will become a flagship in hospitality.”

He said Salt Lake City continues to attract strong investment in its growing economy and tourism sectors.

The financing deal comes as the downtown area continues to build or remodel and actively promote hundreds of new hotel rooms brought on line since 2020.

That includes the 700-room Hyatt Regency convention center hotel next to the Salt Palace; Le Méridien and Element hotels in an area by the Delta Center that’s been renamed the city’s West Quarter; and the historic Asher Adams alongside the Union Pacific Depot at The Gateway.

Note to readers • This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.