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SALT LAKE CITY — The owner of Coachman's Dinner and Pancake House believes Salt Lake residents will be pleasantly surprised by the future of the shuttered restaurant's location.
And the Salt Lake City Planning Commission agrees.
The current restaurant and other spaces along State Street near 1300 South will be torn down to make room for new condominiums and retail space.
A pair of 65-foot-tall mixed-use buildings with a sky bridge connecting one of the buildings to a second-level parking area would add 94 housing units, in addition to nearly 26,000 square feet of ground-level retail space and an underground parking structure with space for almost 250 vehicles.
Mike Nikols, who owns the property and the former Coachman's, said there will be a patio outside the north building that can be used either as a food court or outdoor seating for a restaurant.
"I think it will be neat. … It's pretty much going to be one of the few patios that can be utilized most of the year," he told the commission, prior to their vote on the plan Wednesday.
It's not clear when the project will begin, but Nikols told the commission he "can't wait" for it to come to fruition as the meeting ended.
Coachman's announced its closure in April 2021, a month after the Salt Lake City Council approved a motion to rezone the property, which was petitioned by Nikols. The rezone allowed for new development with a maximum height of 50 to 65 feet.
The first plans for a new mixed-use development with 112 housing units came to the Salt Lake City Planning Commission in December, but it was tabled to clarify questions about unit mixes, vehicular access on State Street and sidewalks by the proposed building's facade.
That didn't dissuade Nikols, who said Wednesday that he believes the end result is better than the original design.
"The original concept, I think was great. This one is much better," he told the planning commission. "We definitely have a better set of plans."
One of the questions related to the length of the building, which has since been split into two structures with a sky bridge connecting them, the project's architect, Ryan Mackowiak, explained. They also adjusted areas around the buildings to make them friendly for people walking in the area.
As for its place on State Street, Price said the Utah Department of Transportation, which oversees State Street, has no objections with the proposed access onto the road but won't give final approval until the city's planning commission has signed off on the project. That's why the project was approved with a condition that UDOT is satisfied at the time a building permit is issued.
While the 94 housing units are 18 fewer than originally proposed last year, it will contain a mix of unit sizes. The plan calls for 23 one-bedroom units, 55 two-bedroom units and 16 three-bedroom units.
This breakdown is actually important to the city and county's housing shortage, says Dejan Eskic, a senior research fellow at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah. Institute experts alerted the Salt Lake City Council earlier this year that there were an alarming number of studio and one-bedroom units in comparison to multiple bedroom options.
This, Eskic explains, can oversupply the market with small options that don't really help with the area's housing shortage and cost concerns. He told KSL NewsRadio's "Dave and Dujanvoic" on Thursday that the county's unit shortage had grown to 45,000 in 2020, with that number still growing.
It's displaced some, while other households are doubling up just to afford housing. The group also released a report earlier this year that found apartments had a vacancy rate of 2%, which Eskic said is well below a healthy rate of 4%. The lower the rate, the harder it is to find a place and the faster rental rates increase.
All of it is why new housing units and housing options matter.
Salt Lake City principal planner Katia Price said the plan for the old Coachman's site will offer families a better opportunity to own the multiple-bedroom units. Wesley Goldberg, a real estate agent working with the project, called it "unbelievably exciting" from a sales perspective.
"We're truly doing something that Salt Lake City hasn't seen before, for all intents and purposes. We're offering a high-end luxury condo product at an affordable price tag," he said, saying the designs will be similar to units near City Creek but not as expensive.
Eskic adds the location of projects is also important. In this case, it's a project that snaps right into place along plenty of existing infrastructure.
As the city eyes new housing projects in the future, he believes more should look into the concept. That's especially true of old retail spaces like Coachman's.
"I think we get the biggest bang for our buck as a community because you're often near things. You don't have to put in new sewers, new roads, etc. You can kind of plug into stuff that's nearby, so there are big savings there," he said. "A lot of times you think of open space … so when we can redevelop old, dilapidated retail, I think it's a good thing."
