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The federal government is throwing an interesting piece of downtown Salt Lake City property into play.

The U.S. General Services Administration announced tentative plans Wednesday to give a 1.54-acre lot it owns at 330 E. 200 South to a qualified developer in exchange for improvements at the James V. Hansen Federal Building at 324 25th St. in Ogden.

The lot in question is the old Salt Lake City Motor Pool Building, used by the FBI until November 2012 for mechanic and garage space for its automotive fleet. The parcel runs north-south along the mid-block street of Dubei Court through the length of what is Block 49 and has street frontage on 200 East and 300 East.

The disused property also is directly south of the Pacific Northwest Pipeline Building, a former Salt Lake City police headquarters also known as the old Public Safety Building. City officials recently put that historic, eight-story structure and its 2.72-acre lot up for bids, seeking a private developer to convert it into housing, shops and offices.

Built in the 1950s, the old cop shop is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a preservation-worthy example of International Style design.

The city hopes its proposal will lead a private developer to convert the empty building to a mix of affordable and market-rate housing units, along with ground-floor retailers and open space.

With a possible second development across the street, that part of the Central City neighborhood could see a major transformation within a few years.

The GSA's Rocky Mountain regional administrator, Susan Damour, called the motor-pool property "an important economic asset for downtown Salt Lake City and an opportunity for someone to regrow and reinvent this area."

GSA documents note the site is close to the city's central business district and in an area that has seen a spike in construction of condominiums, apartments and retail outlets in recent years.

A GSA official in Denver said the agency was offering the Salt Lake City site as a trade for extensive construction and repair services at the Ogden federal building, but with no other strings attached.

"We're not dictating what they do with the property at all," said GSA regional spokeswoman Sally Mayberry.

But the GSA's request for proposals, issued Wednesday, calls for substantial work on the Ogden building, named in 2004 after former Rep. James V. Hansen, R-Utah. The GSA proposal is asking for the electrical system to be modernized, updates to public hallways and elevator lobbies and accessibility improvements to bathrooms as well as repairs to exterior concrete and an asphalt parking lot.

The GSA said it would seek a scope of work matching the estimated value of the motor-pool site, but its proposal also contemplates a cash payment "to address any value discrepancy."

GSA officials will meet with interested parties Oct. 9 at the motor-pool site, starting at 9:30 a.m.

Tony Semerad