Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — Last month, the Salt Lake City Council approved limiting the height of the proposed hotel skyscraper at the Salt Palace Convention Center to 375 feet, thus making it not the largest building in the city as it could have been.
The honor of the city’s tallest building remains with the 422-foot Wells Fargo Center.
However, it did stir up memories of an ambitious 1980s proposed project that would have been the largest skyscraper in the city had it gone as planned.
In 1981, Adnan Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian billionaire businessman, announced plans for an office, retail and entertainment complex in a three-block section surrounding the historic Devereaux House in downtown Salt Lake City. By the time plans were finalized in 1982, the total price tag fluctuated from a little more than $400 million to $615 million throughout the years.
The original plans called for twin 43-story buildings (that ended up getting trimmed to 35 stories within the next few years) and a 10-year construction schedule to complete all phases.
The Triad Center, named after Khashoggi’s Triad America Co., was supposed to have it all. One phase of the project was completed, which included the KSL Broadcast House, but most of the proposed project only stands in old sketches and models that made the rounds of what the area would eventually look like.
On June 7, 1985, groundbreaking for Triad 1 Tower began. By that point, the building was supposed to be a $97 million, 35-story, 697,000-square-foot office building soaring over the rest of the downtown Salt Lake skyline, according to the Deseret News in a 1985 article.
“With this groundbreaking, Triad embarks on one of its most ambitious undertakings, one that will add to Salt Lake City’s skyline,” Stephen Pruitt, Triad Property’s president at the time, told the Deseret News. The building was supposed to mirror previous Triad Center architecture from the first phase of construction.
It was to have a three-story lobby with twin-sculptured waterfalls. The tower wound up being nothing more than the groundbreaking.
Not long after the event, money woes led to series of layoffs and halts in when construction of the tower would begin.
The whole project was eventually scrapped — despite Triad officials telling reporters that a second 35-story building might be in the works after Triad 1 was supposed to be completed in 1987 — and the company went bankrupt.
The first phase of the Triad Center still exists, as do some markings of what could have potentially been the busiest business section in Salt Lake.
However, the Triad 1 tower itself remains a ghost.
