| Location | Salt Lake City, Utah |
|---|---|
| Opening date | 1972 |
| Website | http://www.trolleysquare.com/ |
Trolley Square is a partially enclosed shopping center located in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It is considered to be a trendy high-end center and is the second-most-visited tourist destination within Salt Lake City proper, with 30% of its customers being from out of state.[1] The center lies within close proximity to downtown Salt Lake City and the UTA TRAX light-rail system.
Contents |
Trolley Square is composed of barns that were built in 1908[2] to house Salt Lake City's streetcars. The streetcar system was dismantled in 1945, and the barns were converted into a two-story shopping center in 1972. The center is noted for its unusual architecture consisting of winding hallways, brick and wooden floors, fountains, old-trees, and wrought-iron balconies. Prominent tenants include Pottery Barn, Cabin Fever (a popular card store), Restoration Hardware, Williams-Sonoma, Banana Republic, Old Spaghetti Factory, many art galleries, and local boutiques such as the fashion store Black Chandelier[3] and The Secret Garden Children's Apparel[4] In the past, Trolley Square used to also have a Namco arcade as well a four-screen theatre. Neither of these presently exist, though.
The Trolley Square water tower is covered in red and blue neon lights, and it is a prominent feature of the Salt Lake City skyline, able to be spotted from miles away at night. For many years, the tower would give the local weather forecast based on the colors of lights, with solid blue being fair weather, flashing blue being cloudy weather, solid red being rain, and flashing red being snow. As of recent, however, the tower has ceased its function as a weather forecaster, and simply displays a continuous pattern with the red and blue lights lit at the same time. When there used to be a four-screen theatre in Trolley Square, the titles of the movies that were playing would be posted on a sign attached to the water tower. Although the theatres no longer exist, the vacant sign can still be seen on the structure of the tower.
Another prominent feature of Trolley Square is the sky bridge that connects the main building to a small parking lot located across the street. the bridge goes over 600 South, and it features neon lights shaped in the form of a trolley.
Recently, a lot of construction has been happening at Trolley Square. A new parking complex is being built on the back (west) end, and a new Whole Foods store is being built on the northeast corner of the block. To accommodate for all of the construction, many of the landmarks have been moved, including the water tower, the Trolley Square Arch on the north end, and the trolley car.
On the other side of 700 East sits the Trolley Corners building. Presently, this building houses Tucci's Italian restaurant, Morris Murdock Travel and 24 Hour Fitness. In the past, the building was the home of FM 100 Salt Lake and had three movie theatre screens.
Trolley Square is owned by ScanlanKemperBard Companies, LLC, of Portland, Oregon, who purchased it in August 2006 from Simon Property Group for $38.6 million.[1] The shopping center is scheduled to undergo an $80 million expansion consisting of several new underground parking structures, a Whole Foods Market store,[5] and a mid-rise luxury condominium tower containing at least 232 units.[6] So far, a parking garage located behind the mall has been completed, and the normal parking lot is currently being worked on.
On February 12, 2007, Sulejman Talović went on a shooting spree, killing five people and injuring at least four more before being shot to death by police.