Blaser Ventures had an ambitious plan for the Granary District.

A year ago, the well-known development firm told Salt Lake City Council members it planned to take two aging — but historic — buildings in the burgeoning neighborhood and convert them into a mixed-use property complete with restaurants, affordable housing and new public spaces.

Just over two months later, though, the company knocked down one of the structures, the Utah Pickle Co. Building.

On Tuesday afternoon, council members, acting as the board for the Salt Lake City Community Reinvestment Agency, reconsidered the original agreement between City Hall and the company that would have handed the firm over $6 million in tax reimbursements for completing the project.

Under that deal, Blaser — known for its work on the high-profile Post District along 300 West — was supposed to “preserve, rehabilitate or repurpose” the pickle building to the best of its ability.

Instead, the firm is completely rebuilding the structure at 739 S. 400 West with some original materials. The rebuild is nearing completion.

In the end, council members voted 6-1 to amend the deal by capping the total reimbursement available at about $5 million, essentially doling out a million-dollar penalty. Downtown representative Eva Lopez Chavez voted against the change, arguing that the reduction was too steep.

“The loss of the building is wholly unacceptable and it did feel avoidable, especially in keeping with what we know of this developer,” west-side council member Victoria Petro said. “So, if this is a one-time thing, this is just the worst moment in this developer’s history of developing in this city.”

Brandon Blaser, the company’s president, defended his choice to knock down the building in a letter to council members prior to Tuesday’s meeting. He argued that, in repurposing parts of the structure for other uses across the property, the company should still receive the original tax reimbursements.

The firm’s plans for the building feature a different design than what was originally supposed to be preserved. The structure will now feature bigger ground-floor windows and an addition to the building’s north side.

In total, the project will include 141 housing units, almost 40% of which are set to be affordable, and over 22,000 square feet of commercial space, some of which will become the Utah location of Japanese restaurant Uchi and another eatery called Culinary Dropout.

Blaser officials have said that preserving the building as it stood would have been risky and unsafe. The warehouse’s sandstone foundation needed replacement.

Developer James Alfandre ran a community development nonprofit called the Kentlands Initiative out of the pickle building from 2009 to about 2018. He called the structure an “icon” but acknowledged that it was in bad shape.

“Previous owners didn’t get the proper permits to do proper renovations and work to it,” Alfandre, who is also a board member of the Granary District Alliance, said in an interview. “… It just turned into this unsafe situation of years of neglect.”

Alfandre told council members that he supported Blaser’s new plans for the site, even though the alliance criticized the demolition right after it happened.

“His vision is something we should be applauding,” Alfandre said, “not penalizing.”

Council members, for their part, shared conflicted feelings about the pickle building’s rebuild and the tax reimbursement deal.

Some, like Capitol Hill representative Chris Wharton, expressed excitement about how the project could bring more affordability and vitality to the neighborhood. Multiple members, including Alejandro Puy and Lopez Chavez, said they were disappointed that the structure was knocked down because it was beloved and recognizable.

Built in 1894, the building hosted a soap company owned by the family of former Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Heber J. Grant and, later, a pickle maker.

Some council members also criticized Blaser Ventures for lacking communication.

Puy was especially critical, saying it was disappointing that the developer didn’t approach the partnership with the city “in a way that was transparent and fair.”

“When people are being dishonest,” he said, “I struggle with that.”

In an interview after the meeting, the company’s president took responsibility for the miscommunication.

“I appreciate that the council understood that, while there needs to be a lesson learned by not only myself, the city and the public development community on better communication,” Blaser said, “they were not so punitive that it would be detrimental to the continuation of the project.”

Blaser did take issue with Puy’s comment on dishonesty, saying that his integrity shouldn’t be questioned, and pointed to his company’s history of developing mixed-income and adaptive reuse projects.

Blaser said housing units at the property are set to come on line this summer.