The Redevelopment Agency of Salt Lake City (RDA) established its Granary District Project Area in 1999 with the goal of creating mixed-use neighborhoods that support commercial businesses and services by improving public infrastructure, removing blight, preserving historic structures, and creating open space.

The Granary area was historically utilized as an industrial and railroad corridor serving Salt Lake City, but in recent years has been plagued by vacant warehouses and buildings that while still structurally sound, were sorely underutilized. Seeing an opportunity for these strong structures to bring activity into the area by serving new purposes – housing, service-oriented commercial, light industrial, and retail – while still maintaining the historical fabric of the neighborhood, the RDA took a bold step to incentivize adaptive reuse development in the area and established the Granary District Adaptive Reuse Grant Program.

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This program provides forgivable loans to encourage the reuse and revitalization of the Granary District’s unique stock of warehouse and industrial buildings. The loans are intended to ease the sometimes daunting cost of the necessary building code updates local developers face when renovating aging warehouses and distressed industrial buildings. By facilitating transformative development projects that increase the number of residents living, working, and visiting the Granary District, the RDA has been successfully revitalizing the area one project at a time.

FIsher exterior

Two businesses have recently completed adaptive reuse projects with the help of the Adaptive Reuse Program, including:

  • Atmosphere Studios, a locally owned company employing more than 30 people and specializing in the design and construction of branded environments, is now headquartered in a 66,000-square-foot renovated warehouse.
  • Fisher Brewing Company, a local beer brewer and retailer, transformed a pair of adjacent auto garages into its brewery and taproom.

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The RDA’s strategy to combine the adaptive reuse of contributing structures with new infill development in a manner that supports commercial, residential, and light industrial uses in the Granary District has proven successful, and it invites more developers and businesses to take advantage of the Adaptive Reuse Program. Renewed and refunded by the RDA Board of Directors just this past summer, the Adaptive Reuse Program is ready to help support more adaptive reuse in the Granary neighborhood. For more information about eligibility, funding, match requirement, and terms, go here.

*Blog post contributed by Amanda Holty, Communications Manager, RDA