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SALT LAKE CITY — As development pressure spreads to Salt Lake City's west side, score one for a mom-and-pop operation in the neighborhood.
Margarito Parra, operator of El Asadero, a west-side Mexican restaurant, had been told by the prior developer of an apartment building taking shape next to his business that he'd have to leave to make way for more apartments. It's been the source of plenty of worry over the last two years as the initial building west of his restaurant, still incomplete, has risen from the ground, reducing traffic at El Asadero.
The original developer, though, filed for bankruptcy protection in late May and has since sold the site to another developer who has told Parra, who rents the space, that he may remain. "I can breathe easy. We're going to try again," said Parra, who has operated at the site at the southwest corner of North Temple Street and 1000 West since 2009.
Call it a victory for the little guy as more chain stores and tall apartment buildings creep into the zone west of the I-15 corridor, sparking worries among some locals about gentrification — displacement of locals by wealthier outsiders. "He wants the place to stay because he likes the food here," said Parra, referencing Jereme Thaxton, chief executive officer of Salt Lake City-based Alta Bay Capital, which acquired the incomplete apartment building from Lusso Apartments.
As it stood, business had been dipping amid rumblings El Asadero might be leaving. Many regulars, in fact, thought the business had closed, and now Parra is trying to get word out that he's sticking around. If the site of El Asadero is to be redeveloped in the months and years to come, Thaxton has broached the possibility of El Asadero moving into some of the commercial space on the ground-floor of the new apartment building next door at 1025 N. Temple.
"We have dined there for years and couldn't be more thrilled to be working with Margarito on helping his business thrive," Thaxton said in a message to KSL.com.
Alta Bay Capital acquired the spot where El Asadero and the apartment building to the west sit in the wake of the May 31 federal Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by Lusso Apartments, based in Salt Lake City. Lusso reps didn't respond to queries seeking comment, but the filing, still winding through court, says the firm has $10 million to $50 million in assets and $10 million to $50 million in liabilities. The main Lusso creditor is Ready Capital Corp. of New York with a disputed claim of some $10.5 million. Nine other creditors make claims varying from around $100,000 to more than $700,000.
The change in fortunes for Parra notwithstanding, development pressure and the specter of gentrification in the area isn't likely to go away. Though El Asadero dodged a bullet, Parra, originally from Mexico, notes plenty of change in the neighborhood. The business used to be surrounded by homes, now gone, and dwellings to the east of the business are boarded up, to make way, Parra thinks, for another apartment building. There's even talk of someday building a Major League Baseball stadium in the west-side area.
"We are competing against big corporations. If we don't get help, we leave," Parra said, alluding to the plight of mom-and-pop operations like his, which he operates with wife Imelda Morales. It may be the west side, a grittier counterpart to neighborhoods further east, he said, but as "a quick trip to downtown," it's ripe for redevelopment.
Indeed, the character, as he describes it, is already shifting as developers recognize the potential.
"I used to know the people who lived there, over there," he said, gesturing outside the restaurant window to homes long gone or going away to make way for new development. "This used to be a community. Now I don't know who anyone is."
