650 Main: Creating a Dynamic Gathering Place in Salt Lake City
Premier Urban Destination
Helped develop a health-conscious and connected daily environment and workplace destination in Salt Lake City’s growing south side, featuring a pedestrian friendly plaza, open space design, and other amenities
Local Connectivity
Delivered services that enhanced commuter accessibility, convenience, and flexibility, facilitating access to restaurants, hotels, entertainment venues, and residential options
Unique Development Services
Designed a variety of physical spaces—including the site and amenities for a LEED-certified office tower along Main Street—to offer distinctive user experiences that showcase sweeping mountain views
650 Main, a mixed-use office development, stands as a transformative centerpiece at the gateway of Salt Lake City’s (SLC) growing central business district. Once an underused parking lot, the site has been reimagined into a vibrant, mixed-use office destination with the help of Kimley-Horn’s design services. This 10-story, 332,000-square-foot space features master-planned twin LEED-certified office towers with conjoined parking structures and a retail outparcel, complete with urban plazas that connect directly to the adjacent light rail station on Main Street.
The completion of Phase 1 in 2022—with the construction of one office tower, a parking garage, and a retail outparcel—marks 650 Main’s emergence as a gateway for Salt Lake City’s professionals and community. With expansive tenant amenities and unparalleled access to downtown, the uniquely developed site brings together a dynamic space cultivating health and wellness for tenants and a premier workplace destination for SLC professionals.
Project Recognition
A User-Centered Design Approach Unique to Utah
Mindful of Utah’s arid climate while focusing on user experiences, Kimley-Horn’s team performed comprehensive landscape architecture and urban design services in collaboration with an architectural firm. For example, we designed outdoor recreation areas, such as courtyards, a fire pit, a bocce ball court, and ping pong tables, to offer gathering areas encouraging occupants to step outside.
As the local civil engineering consultant on the design team, Kimley-Horn facilitated phased permit packages and partnered with the developer and architect to help them navigate SLC’s and Utah’s development processes. This enabled our project partners to begin site development activities early.
Our team also served as the traffic analysis team for 650 Main, facilitating permitting with the Utah Department of Transportation and SLC. We used a multimodal traffic flow model that included the interaction of vehicles, pedestrians, and an anticipated station for TRAX, Utah Transit Authority’s light rail system. The traffic flow model demonstrated the project’s limited impact on local and state roads resulting from the anticipated station, thereby mitigating offsite roadway improvements.
Services we provided included:
- Due diligence
- Entitlement services
- Site civil engineering
- On- and off-site support to upsize a six-inch waterline to a 12-inch main line
- Landscape architecture
- Traffic engineering
A Modern, Connected Workplace for Salt Lake City’s Future
Opened in 2022, 650 Main is a modern and compelling office experience in a dynamic urban location. The property achieved LEED Gold designation as well as the Platinum certification from Wired Score for the high quality of its wired infrastructure—the first office building in Utah to achieve such a designation.
With connections to restaurants, hotels, entertainment, and residential areas and public transportation located steps from the site’s front doors, 650 Main supports a vibrant district where people want to live, work, play, and visit.
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