When my brother told me he was moving to a new apartment in Utah County, I was not expecting one of the first perks he’d mention to be a golf simulator. I thought he’d tell me about the price of rent, where it’s located or maybe the size of the apartment.
Sure enough, on my first visit to the place he was about to call home, he showed me around the pool, the communal kitchen, the pinball machines in the arcade, the large gym, the theater room and, of course, the golf simulator. Seeing that my previous apartment had nothing but a few tables to sit at outside, my eyes were opened to an entirely new way of living that I had never considered before.
This is a shift that many residents, developers and contractors in Utah are seeing more of. Carl Tippets, CEO at Pentalon Construction, says, “I’ve been doing this for almost 50 years and the amenity package really has evolved immensely … into a more complex package.”
What do renters want?
Up until recently, rented apartments, condos and townhomes were only viewed as a transitory option before families saved up for the “white-picket fence” dream: owning a home. This is no longer the case.
“In different phases of life, maybe home ownership is actually not the best thing, not the most convenient,” says Jake Boyer, president of The Boyer Company. “That flexibility [of renting] has a higher value than ownership because it provides the payment for experiences more valuable than owning a house.”
Tippets — whose Pentalon Construction is developing The Trail, luxury multi-family housing units at Farmington Station — agrees with the idea that home ownership isn’t the “end-all, be-all” goal that it used to be. “Today, it’s a lifestyle choice,” he says. “[Renting] reflects the fact that, ‘I don’t want to spend my Saturdays mowing the lawn and working in the garden. I want to go out and golf or hike.’ The amenity packages become kind of an extension of that lifestyle.”
Appealing to an improved quality of life explains why many amenity packages now include golf simulators, pools, coworking spaces, pickleball courts and even climbing walls. Renters are no longer residing in limbo at these complexes, but are instead looking to grow roots. With that long-term vision in place, it’s no longer just a building where they go to bed and wake up in the morning. They want to look for a place that provides more.
This is something that Neil Goldman, partner at Angstrom Development Group, is keeping in mind for The Slope, a new development soon to be built in Heber Valley. “Our measure of success here for this project is not necessarily tied to a financial outcome,” Goldman says. “It’s tied to our ability to create this as a community hub [where] people want to go and spend time and linger and create memories. If we do that the right way, then everything else will fall into place.”
This shifting focus on amenities also reflects changes in how Utahns work — whether that’s in conference rooms, coworking spaces or in-unit offices. Last year, Hostinger reported that 37.3 percent of employees in Utah work from home.
Jason Algaze, principal at Abstract Development, ensured that one of South Salt Lake’s newest apartment complexes, One Burton, reflects these residents’ needs. “Every single unit has either a little office nook if it’s in a smaller unit or [in the larger floor plans, a] full, separate office. And those [units with an office] honestly ended up being the ones that flew off the shelf right off the bat.”
Renting and high-density housing
While renting does provide a flexible lifestyle to apartment residents, it’s also a decision made out of monetary necessity. Boyer says, “For those [who] really want to aspire to have a house and a ‘white picket fence,’ that dream is still alive. But it is harder because it’s more expensive.”
Even if a family or individual is able to purchase a home, Goldman points out, it can end up being a “money pit.” With rentals, monthly fees are more predictable for renters, who are not expected to pay for repairs or updates.
Last year, the Kem. C. Gardner Policy Institute reported that Utah has the 9th most expensive housing market in the nation. And while growth in Utah is not as fast as it was just a few years ago, the state’s population is still about 3.5 million, with over 50,000 new residents moving in last year. In order to meet the ever-growing demand, Utah needs to supply over 48,000 units of affordable housing — almost the same number of incoming Utahns.
High-density housing options are becoming unavoidable. While these are unpopular for several reasons, there is certainly a way to approach these plans with intention and sound design.
Regarding this growing demand in Utah, Goldman says, “It’s really hard to stop [new people moving in] because of all the existing momentum that is already in place. … It’s our job to react appropriately to it and try to be a good steward.”
Boyer observes that, with Utah developers, “We’ve been unwilling to approve higher-density projects. As time goes on, we’re going to have to become much more open-minded.”
Tippets adds that the livability of rental units becomes driven by who the target market is.
“If you are a young family looking, you have to have multiple bedrooms. If you’re looking for a single, professional living downtown, we’re seeing a lot of studio apartments and micro units,” he says.“The livability of those floor plans is pretty sparse, but then the amenity package may be a lot more complex to offset that.”
An effective method for Utahns to more readily accept high-density housing is to insist on the development being built with good design in mind. A report from Newmark Knight Frank says that “Projects that are both well designed and offer more amenities command higher effective rents and lease-up paces compared with projects that have the same number of amenities but are not well designed.”
Amenities shaping the future
While amenity packages do significantly increase property value, Tippets emphasizes that they aren’t a major profit center — yet. Rather, they add to the marketability of a residential area.
“People are actually picking up and moving from one project to another project because they have a better amenity package,” he continues.
Amenities also help to improve businesses and opportunities by paving the way for retail and commercial real estate in the surrounding area. One Burton is an example of this, where Algaze is planning for the complex to be the first step to develop South Salt Lake into the next Sugarhouse neighborhood.
“Retail tenants don’t always want to come in when there’s not a lot of foot traffic and people walking the streets. They just can’t sustain their business,” he says. “Once you start adding hundreds or thousands of apartments, people living there every day need the basics. They need the grocery store, barber shop, markets and things like that. [When you are] bringing in residents in apartments first, retail usually comes there after.”
Adding amenities to the building is the first step in attracting residents to the area, which in turn helps to revitalize the neighborhood and create a lifestyle that suits both residents and business owners in anticipation for what Utah will look like in the coming years.
“If we look at what our parents, our grandparents, everyone else always taught us, the American Dream is homeownership,” Goldman says. “That was portrayed 50, 60, 70 years ago as having the white picket fence and everything. That’s changed to a certain extent, … [but] what has not changed is the sense of pride in your dwelling.”
That pride now rests in the amenity packages evolving at new housing options all over Utah. It explains why my brother mentioned the golf simulator at his new apartment, and it answers the question of why Utahns don’t need home ownership anymore to feel at home. Perhaps the grass isn’t greener behind the white picket fence. Perhaps it’s greener where you water it — even if that’s just the houseplants you keep in your apartment.
