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- Demolition of the 57 West building in Salt Lake City will begin around March.
- The building, damaged by a 2020 earthquake, was vacated by its last tenant last summer.
- Some traffic and sidewalk impacts from the demolition are expected to last into 2026 with a holiday break in demolition work.
SALT LAKE CITY — A downtown building damaged in the 2020 earthquake will come down later this year, after its most prominent tenant moved out last year.
57 West, an eight-story building located at 57 W. South Temple, will be demolished beginning around March, according to an update posted on the building's website. The website includes a timeline that states demolition work will last through most of the year, wrapping up in the fall while some traffic and walking impacts are expected to linger into 2026.
"The demolition will be conducted in collaboration with the neighboring community and businesses," the website states. "Updates will be posted (online) as they become available."
The site says some preparatory work is already underway before the City Creek South Temple parking garage ramp is closed in the area sometime in February ahead of the demolition. That's also when "traffic control" and a sidewalk closure will begin on the south side of South Temple.
The garage ramp is projected to reopen by March, but the traffic and sidewalk impacts are scheduled to remain in place for most of the year. Both of those will be briefly reopened toward the holiday season while the project itself will also go on holiday break, but some impacts will remain in place through early next year as post-demolition work is completed.
A representative of Property Reserve Inc., which owns the building, told KSL.com in April 2024 that the building would be demolished. County records show it was built in 1956 and remodeled in 2007, but Dale Bills, a spokesman for the company, said it was found to be too damaged by the earthquake to be repaired.
That revelation came as UWM Men's Shop, a fifth-generation family-owned clothing store that had operated out the building's first floor, announced it was departing downtown after 119 years for a new shop in Murray.
Bills said at the time that a structural engineering firm surveyed the building after the earthquake and identified "seismic risks." The building's website adds that 57 West "has come to the end of its useful life."
The building has been vacant since UWM Men's Shop completed its move last summer. It was the property's last tenant after Deseret Book — the building's primary tenant — had moved out in 2019.
Salt Lake City records show that the Grant Mackay Company, hired to handle the job, filed for a demolition permit in November. It initially anticipated starting work this month before wrapping up in June. However, Bills said last year that the demolition timeline would be based on the "timetable of other major downtown construction already underway," such as construction at Temple Square.
It remains unclear what's next for the space after the demolition.
Correction: A previous version of this article stated that a closure would impact State Sreet. It will impact South Temple.
