Historic Salt Lake City chapel restoration project moves forward

SALT LAKE CITY — A project to restore a historic church was showing visible signs of progress Tuesday as the owner said he hopes to have work completed in a year.

Skyler Baird said he has faced some financing obstacles in his bid to transform the Fifth Ward meetinghouse, located at 740 S. 300 West, into a mixed-use property featuring housing for people recovering from drug addiction, leading to some modifications.

"As time has progressed, it's become very apparent that financing a half-demolished church with a nonprofit is not the banks' first choice, and so we're pivoting a little bit," Baird explained during an interview with KSL. "I have a for-profit business, BoostedSafe, that's going to take over half of the building — the top half, the chapel and that — and we're still going to maintain the housing for the nonprofit, and we're going to continue on with the original goal, just supported by my for-profit business."

Baird said he still expects to offer 18 units of recovery housing under the nonprofit named Salt of the Earth.

The meetinghouse was nearly demolished over Easter in 2024 under a previous developer.

Baird took over the property later in the year and has since been working slowly toward renovating it.

"Rebuilding a historical structure is quite the undertaking — it's taken a lot of permits, a lot of different approvals from different people in the city — but we've had some help from Preservation Utah," Baird said. "They've actually been able to give us a low-interest loan for the rebuilding of the front portion of these steps, and that's really helped us get kickstarted with this portion of the project."

On Tuesday, the foundation was taking shape for steps on the east side of the church, which was originally constructed in 1910.

"It's like a dueling staircase that's going to go up to the main chapel area," Baird explained. "We've made lots of progress with everything else that you don't see, but now we're actually coming out of the ground, and it's a really good sight to see."

He said he believes he could have the project completed in a year.

Baird said over the past 15 years, he has helped close to a dozen people get off the streets and into houses of their own, and he hopes to help more people in the future through his nonprofit.

"That's why I've chosen to go this route with the people that have already chosen to overcome addiction by providing them with a place where they can continue on their path of recovery," Baird said. "If you've already made that hard choice to get better, I want to support you in that."

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