Salt Lake City's big bet on turning apartment buildings into wealth-building machines for tenants is no longer just a one-off experiment. After Arbor 515, a converted downtown tower, filled up fast and brought in community uses on the ground floor, developers and city officials say the project is now kickstarting a broader pipeline of for-sale condos, infill housing, and another multifamily building nearby.
Arbor 515 filled quickly after its conversion
The former HK Tower at 515 E. 100 South has been remade as Arbor 515, now home to 96 apartments plus ground-floor space for a Montessori and nonprofit offices, as reported by The Salt Lake Tribune. The project opened last fall, drawing state and local leaders to the ribbon cutting, and developers say delivering apartments floor by floor during construction helped the building hit full occupancy in short order.
How the profit-sharing model works
The Perpetual Housing Fund's model takes much of a building's annual cash flow, along with a share of any refinancing or sale proceeds, and redirects it into credits or payouts for tenants. PHF leaders say renters can then use that money for savings or to help buy a home down the road, turning rent checks into a way to build actual financial value. “That’s not an easy check to cut,” PHF co-director Chris Parker told Building Salt Lake.
PHF's pipeline: condos, infill and bigger towers
PHF told the Community Reinvestment Agency it is planning a multifamily building just north of Arbor 515 that could replace a parking garage and target a median affordability around 60% AMI, while also including about 25 affordable, for-sale three-bedroom condos aimed at households between 80% and 120% AMI. In the Guadalupe neighborhood, Project Open 3 has been redesigned from 23 townhomes into 20 for-sale three-bedroom units with a target price near $300,000, and a Poplar Grove infill project at 1000 W. 570 South would add four to six affordable units.
The fund also flagged a potential expansion of Palmer Court at 999 S. Main, a permanent-supportive housing campus that could ultimately total several hundred units after demolition and rebuilding. PHF noted it has committed to creating 1,000 units in the city over the next two decades. PHF's asset arm, Giv Group, purchased the Judge Building downtown last year as another possible site, according to Building Salt Lake.
City backing and what it buys
City Hall has put public dollars behind the wealth-building strategy. The mayor's office announced more than $14 million in NOFA funding for projects built around tenant wealth, and officials say ARPA and CRA resources helped launch the profit-sharing models. City leaders say that early public money was critical to closing the financing for Arbor 515 and that the new NOFA funds are meant to fuel follow-on pilots.
Officials argue that pairing seed public funding with mission-driven developers could eventually take the concept citywide, turning rental buildings into a path toward ownership and modest but steady payouts for low- and moderate-income households, according to the mayor's office statement.
