Jose Davila IVNearly a year after two people died in a shooting outside of a Salt Lake City funeral, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is set to sell the site of the tragedy.
Church officials have drawn up a contract to unload the meetinghouse at 660 N. Redwood Road in the Fairpark neighborhood of Utah’s capital to developer Garbett Homes.
At the time of the deadly January shooting, the Latter-day Saint chapel hosted two Tongan congregations: the Rose Park Fifth Ward and the Riverside Second Ward. The faith’s website no longer lists the building, and those wards have moved to another facility at 868 N. Star Crest Drive.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) A bullet hole in a window at a meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the day after a shooting in the Fairpark neighborhood of Salt Lake City. The building is up for sale.
Soon enough, the Redwood Road meetinghouse may no longer stand at all. While it currently is listed for sale at $3.1 million by commercial real estate company CBRE Group, a $5 million purchase and sale agreement has been signed by the church and the development firm as part of a rezoning petition for the property.
The faith’s spokesperson did not provide answers to multiple questions about the planned sale. The Utah-based church has sold a handful of notable properties in Salt Lake County in recent years as its membership base in the area has contracted.
The sale has not been finalized yet, according to county land records.
“We’re currently under contract to purchase the property from the church,” Paul Garbett, who works in land acquisition for Garbett Homes, said Monday, “but things are in a bit of a holding pattern.”
When and if the property does change hands — and if city officials approve Garbett Homes’ plan — the company would be set to build 88 town homes for rent on the roughly 3.5-acre site that backs onto the Jordan River.
(Salt Lake City) An image uploaded by Garbett Homes as part of the firm's rezoning petition for the meetinghouse property at 660 N. Redwood Road shows the planned layout of the future town home development.
“The project will bring additional housing units where none existed,” company officials wrote in their petition. “The housing shortage is affecting all residents and by bringing more supply to a large parcel in the city, [the project] will play a role in helping with housing affordability.”
The development would include a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units with attached garages. About 30 units would have three bedrooms, according to the company’s filing with the city.
Garbett Homes committed to cutting rent by 10% for public servants living in the town homes and hopes to make some of the units affordable with help from the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency.
The company also aims to partner with the city to develop a riverside green space on city land northeast of the property. It plans to start construction in 2028.
On Jan. 7, 38-year-old Sione Vatuvei and 46-year-old Vaea Tulikihihifo died amid the chaotic scene outside the meetinghouse. Six others were hurt. One man, John Vea Uasike Jr., has been charged with two counts of murder. That case is ongoing.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Law enforcement at the site of a the shooting at a meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in January.
