Salt Lake City's former cop shop may have a new future — as housing, shops and offices

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Salt Lake City wants to enlist a private developer to renovate an aging downtown tower known to longtime residents as the former Public Safety Building.

City officials hope to convert the vintage structure at 315 E. 200 South for various uses, primarily market-rate and affordable-housing units with ground-floor commercial spaces that might include retail outlets, restaurants and offices.

The project would involve an overhaul of the historic building as well as construction of new buildings on the 2.72-acre site, much of which is now devoted to parking.

The city's Housing and Neighborhood Development Division is gathering input on the renovation from a variety of sources, including an open house Wednesday evening held by the Central City Neighborhood Council.

Division director Mike Akerlow said the city wants housing units built at the site to cater to a range of family incomes — in keeping with what it recommends for private projects.

"If we're going to say it, we have to lead out and do it," Akerlow said. "This is a perfect place and opportunity to have a mix of uses and a mix of incomes."

Officials are crafting a formal request for proposals from developers to be issued in late August, Akerlow said.

The site, located two blocks north of the 400 South TRAX light-rail line, is currently zoned for residential and mixed use.

Constructed in the late 1950s as a company headquarters for the Pacific Northwest Pipeline Co., the then-95,000-square-foot structure was purchased by the city in 1979. The eight-story building — considered by preservationists as a prime example of International Style design — housed city police, dispatch and fire-fighting operations for decades.

The last remaining city employees working there moved earlier this year to the new $125 million Public Safety Building at 475 S. 300 East.

In 2011, the former Public Safety Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, potentially making a future owner eligible for federal and state tax credits toward its rehabilitation.

County property records say the building and land have an assessed value of nearly $14.5 million.

Tony Semerad