Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- Citizens West complex adds 80 affordable units in Salt Lake City's Guadeloupe neighborhood.
- Units target families earning 25% to 50% of area median income and multigenerational households.
- The project aims to revitalize family communities in the city.
SALT LAKE CITY — Affording a home in Salt Lake City's Guadeloupe neighborhood wasn't terribly difficult when Giv Group started looking at new developments surrounding Utah Transit Authority's North Temple FrontRunner station almost a decade ago.
"When we approached it, home prices in this neighborhood were mid-$100,000," said Chris Parker, director of the development company.
That's no longer the case.
While thousands of apartment units have opened in the area over the past 10 years, turning an underutilized factory district just northwest of downtown into a fast-growing neighborhood, he points out that the many homes that were once obtainable for working-class families are now almost out of reach. Homes in the area may cost $400,000 to $600,000 or more, on top of high interest rates.
However, an addition to a new complex seeks to help turn things around. State, county and local leaders joined developers and financiers on Tuesday to celebrate the opening of the second and third phases of Citizens West, a mixed-use complex with many units dedicated to affordable housing, with a focus on larger or multigenerational families.
The project adds 80 units to the complex, all of which are dedicated to households making between 25% and 50% of the area's median income. It also includes 40 "large units," which include three or four bedrooms, as well as 24 units dedicated to people 55 or older, refugees or people who formerly experienced homelessness, all of whom are often lost in the region's housing shuffle.
"These are the neighbors who often face the steepest housing barriers," said Tanya Birks, director of housing for Salt Lake County.
It also includes a two-story fitness center and a seventh-story clubhouse and patio with a view of the Wasatch Mountains and the Utah Capitol peaking over the top of apartments to the east, and the Oquirrh Mountains to the west. There's another patio between the fitness center and a set of working spaces, which are set up for little play areas for children who may move in, said Amanda Dillon, developer for Giv Group.
The all-electric complex also holds 34 electric vehicle chargers in its parking garage, along with the option to add more in the future
Developers are also in discussions with Alfonso Santo, co-owner of Santo Taco and Monarca in Salt Lake City, over a new "European cafe, sandwich shop" restaurant concept in a 2,600-square-foot ground-floor commercial space that was also constructed, she added. That could open sometime next year.
Rebuilding a family community
Giv began planning for Citizens West in 2016, as it was finishing up another complex it developed along the fast-growing corridor running from North Temple and 400 South, between 300 West and 600 West. Many of the new apartment complexes run at market rate, so they sought to bring in affordable housing units, Dillon explained.
"We basically mobilized to try to get affordability in this area," she told KSL.com.
Accomplishing that wasn't easy, though. It required support from state, county and local entities, along with other groups in different phases, which is why the first phase was completed in 2021 and the second and third phases were completed this year.
The Utah Housing Corporation allocated $27 million in tax credits, which Goldman Sachs purchased, setting up most of the funding for the project that cost over $30 million to complete, Dillon said. Salt Lake City allocated approximately $3.3 million in total funds, while Salt Lake County and Olene Walker Housing Loan Fund — combined — added about another $3 million.
The 80 new units add to 55 affordable units and 25 market-rate units that opened in the first phase. Construction on the complex's fourth and final phase is visible from the seventh floor of the addition. That's expected to be completed next year, adding 52 more mixed-income housing units that will also skew more toward larger bedroom units.
"That's the goal with a lot of these projects," she said. "How do we bring families back to Salt Lake? ... How do we create spaces where families that have been pushed out by rents they can't afford or mortgages that they can't afford?"
Those are questions she believes projects like Citizens West can answer. They're also questions city leaders have sought to address in recent years, especially after having to close four elementary schools in 2024 over declining enrollment. It was also a key issue brought up in Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall's State of the City address at the start of this year.
That's why the mayor was thrilled by Tuesday's ribbon-cutting, the latest one she's attended in a busy year for affordable projects.
"I think what we're doing is setting a new tempo for the creation of livable, high-quality housing in this capital city — a tempo that we haven't seen in at least the last 50 years," she said. "Projects like this are just a dream come true."
