Developers have taken modern apartment living to new heights in downtown Salt Lake City with the opening of Liberty Sky, a bold foray into the future of multi-family housing in Utah.
The first modern high-rise rental community in Salt Lake, Liberty Sky rises 24 stories in the heart of downtown, offering 272 total units comprised of studio, one-, and two-bedroom floor plans. With its convenient location to all downtown has to offer, stunning views, and ultra-modern amenities, Liberty Sky offers an exhilarating advancement to urban living in Utah.
“This is an exciting step in the evolution of downtown Salt Lake City,” said Dan Lofgren, President and CEO of Utah developer Cowboy Partners, which developed the property along with The Boyer Company. “I think people in the city administration and people who work downtown, or own businesses downtown, or just want to live downtown recognize what this means and understand about the door that this project has opened.”
Salt Lake-based Jacobsen Construction served as general contractor for the high rise, which encompasses 366,000 SF and took 26 months from groundbreaking to completion. Residents began moving in in December 2021.
“This being the first high-rise apartment building [in Salt Lake City], it makes excellent use of the space it’s allotted and is anything but typical,” said KC Burns, Project Manager for Jacobsen Construction. “Salt Lake has classically spread, pushing much of the community from the city center. Considering nearly 300 families could return to the heart of downtown—enjoying culture, dining, arts, and shopping—it can only enhance what is already great. It’s a first offering to those who may be looking to find this type of community and connection commonly established in most large city cultures.”
According to Lee Dial, COO/CFO of Cowboy Partners, the company looked at the other luxury apartment projects they’d built in the downtown market and noticed that probably 70% of the residents were coming from big metro areas out of state where high-rise apartment living is common. “So we thought that there would be some pent-up demand for this,” Dial said. “We’ve found that to be pretty true.”
On the architecture front, developers turned to Smallwood, an Atlanta-based firm with a wide array of completed projects worldwide. Gil Harrison Principal for Smallwood, said the firm was uniquely qualified to strike the balance between creating something trendsetting while also meeting high expectations.
“As one of the nation’s leading multi-family project designers, Smallwood has observed trends in the marketplace and designed projects that respond to those expectations in creative, successful ways,” Harrison said. “With Salt Lake City’s vibrant downtown environment and spectacular geographical setting, it only made sense to bring a state-of-the-art design solution that embraces these influences to fruition in this market for the first time.”
“We are very proud of this project and glad to have been a trendsetter for this type of product in the SLC market,” said Corey Lee, Registered Architect for Smallwood. “There is a lot of energy in this city, and we hope this project helps build on that momentum.”
Since Liberty Sky has been built, Dial said, there have been several other high-rise apartment projects announced downtown.
“We’re excited to be first to market with this,” Dial said. “We definitely know it’s some kind of wave because there’s been about four or five of the towers now announced.”
Lofgren said Cowboy Partners started talking about this project five years before it came out of the ground, noting it took extensive financial modeling as well as an effort to identify best practices for quality, aesthetics, and cost.
“There was an extraordinary amount of market analysis done, redone, and done again long before the first shovel of dirt was turned,” he said.
The 151 S. State Street location and towering height of the building afford spectacular views of downtown and the surrounding Salt Lake Valley. Developers went all-in on capitalizing on ways to present the existing panorama. Liberty Sky boasts a visually stunning glass exterior coupled with exposed concrete.
“It is, in my perception, a very bold, almost aggressive design that is a marvelous marriage of the sleekness of the glass and the strength of the exposed concrete,” said Lofgren.
“The building façade is predominately high-performance vision glass modulated by strong, cast-in-place architectural concrete verticals that reinforce and emphasize the height of the building,” Harrison said. “The refined use of glass and concrete along the well-developed aluminum trim and miscellaneous framing details give the building a modern, sophisticated aesthetic that appeals particularly to those who appreciate the urban lifestyle.”
Most notably, Burns said, the structure is the finished product.
“The interior to each unit and corridor is comprised of exposed 10-foot concrete ceilings and shear walls,” Burns said. “Couple this with the light from floor-to-ceiling glass and you really have a space that provides a sense of livable volume. The concrete columns and shear planes are the exterior and interior. In many structures, they dress it up and cover it up once it is standing—we started with finished elements.”
Lofgren said the most impactful design move was very possibly the decision to build those 10-foot ceilings.
“From inside those apartments, the impact of that much glass can’t be overstated,” he said. “The views are better than anyone ever expected. Also, key to maximizing the value of the views was the decision to utilize the penthouse level as an amenities deck that gives everyone in the building immediate access to those jaw-dropping views.”
Ah, yes, the penthouse deck. Topping the extremely long list of desirable amenities, the rooftop features a year-round swimming pool, hot tub, private cabanas, outdoor kitchens and bars, BBQ sites on the east and west ends, and heated outdoor patio areas. There deck also includes 24/7 fitness centers (featuring free weights, high-end excercise bikes, and Wellbeats on-demand virtual training), big-screen televisions, a theater room, and a club room with gaming connectivity.
Adding to the Liberty Sky vibe and its cachet is the upper-level light box at the top of the building. According to Burns, the light box capability is not only meant to be aesthetically pleasing but also contains a programmable LED lighting array that can project myriad colors.
“This is great to add to the ambiance of downtown,” Burns said, “whether it is coordinated to be festive or to celebrate one of the local teams.”
In addition to the top deck, some of the building’s other amenities include conference and private meeting facilities, five-level parking, exterior courtyard and hospitality spaces, private work booths, an Uber lounge, a mailroom with large parcel storage, dog run, dog wash, large bike storage room with work stations, a porte cochere for cars, coffee bar, tech-forward lobby and lounge, and an interactive monitoring wall.
One of the more subtle aspects of Liberty Sky’s design that Lofgren is particularly proud of is how the five-level parking garage seamlessly interfaces with the main building. The elevator plan especially lifts his spirits.
“The parking deck and building entrances were designed with the specific intent to limit the trip from your car to your home to one elevator ride,” Lofgren said. “There is no parking elevator down and into the building, so you can ride another elevator up to your home. Rather, get out of your car and just push that elevator button once and you are there.”
As one might imagine, you can’t erect a 24-story building and five levels of parking on little more than an acre of ground without facing some challenges. And completing it all in a robust and thriving downtown environment adds another dimension to that challenge, Burns said.
“Every detail and delivery was timed and coordinated with the idea that we weren’t going to be the exception to people living and working downtown,” Burns related. “Being an entire concrete structure, placement of thousands of yards began in the early A.M. for each level. To have continuous, uninterrupted delivery, we needed to be complete by the time most people start their day. This type of all-concrete construction is a first ever for this market. Structures like this exist in New York or California, but the likes of these have never been completed here.
“The craftsmanship and finish to this modern structure will be a catalyst for revitalization and reshape what is possible for downtown living and development,” Burns said.
This was an exciting process to be involved in from start to finish, said Lofgren, even working through the COVID-19 pandemic and staring down other obstacles.
“As you can imagine, some days you are excited out of your socks because what is happening is so cool,” Lofgren said. “Some days, like when you realize you have to press on in spite of a pandemic, you wonder, ‘What have I bitten off?’ But on balance, the word that comes to mind for me, the way I feel, is fun. What fun it is to be able to do this!”
Lofgren was effusive with praise for his partners in this project and singled out Jake Boyer at The Boyer Company for recognizing the value of this specific site several years before they started talking about Liberty Sky in particular.
“I remember so well the conversation in which Jake Boyer used the phrase ‘The project that site deserved.’ It is the most vibrant expression of an urban lifestyle imaginable,” Lofgren said, noting all the world-class shopping and entertainment options within easy walking distance. “Dozens and dozens and dozens of restaurants and nightspots literally right out your door. This discussion about the merits of the site could go on a long time, but I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to put Liberty Sky—this really bold and innovative development—on exactly the right spot on Earth.”
Liberty Sky Apartments
Location: 151 S. State
Delivery Method: CM/GC
Square Feet: 366,000
Levels/Stories: 21 residential, 24 overall
Owner: Cowboy Partners
Owner’s Developer: The Boyer Company
Architect: Smallwood
General Contractor: Jacobsen Construction
Civil Engineer: McNeil Engineering
Electrical Engineer: Hunt Electric
Mechanical Engineer: UMC Inc.
Structural: Stanley D. Lindsey and Associates
Geotech: McNeil Engineering, Consolidated Engineering Laboratories
Landscape & Interior Design: Smallwood
Pools: Aquatech, Aqua Design Systems
Plumbing & HVAC Contractor: UMC Inc.
Electrical Contractor: Hunt Electric
Concrete: Jacobsen Construction, Pikus Concrete (parking)
Steel Fabrication: Precision Welding