Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
- Salt Lake City aims to attract shoppers back to Sugar House amid a construction pause.
- Local businesses faced challenges from COVID-19, but then again during ongoing construction that impacted customer traffic this year.
- City loans and grants helped support struggling businesses; the Sugar House Savings Pass was also created as an incentive to bring in more shoppers.
SALT LAKE CITY — Tim Hall remembers he always wanted to open a business in Sugar House because of its "unique vibrant energy."
So, when he co-founded Game Night Games in 2004, he was thrilled to open right in the heart of the neighborhood's growing business district.
"It seemed like the perfect place for fun to happen," he said, standing near a pair of gold foil balloons spelling out "20" in honor of his business' 20th anniversary this year.
However, the past few years haven't always been fun.
The COVID-19 pandemic shifted around business patterns and made it difficult for Hall to host gatherings and events, a feature his business has always had as a third space for board game enthusiasts. Then, this year, construction along 2100 South and 1100 East changed consumer habits again, as many people skipped trips to Sugar House altogether to avoid traffic headaches.
Hall said his business is still "hanging in there" because the construction hasn't been as impactful as the pandemic, but others haven't been as lucky. SugarHouse Barbeque Company owners said construction was partially why they closed just up the street from Game Night Games. Their location is currently being flipped into a new Chase Bank branch location.
A few other businesses also closed and others are "teetering" on the edge of collapse, said Erika Wiggins, co-chairwoman of the Sugar House Chamber of Commerce. She told KSL.com that she knew construction would be hard on businesses, but it ended up being "more brutal" than what the chamber had anticipated.
"We went in with cautious optimism. Toward the end, it was hard to sleep at night — for worry over how many businesses we were losing," she said. "It was harder than we ever expected."
Construction is going on break for the holidays and Salt Lake City leaders are hoping to use that pause to woo shoppers back to Sugar House this season.
Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall celebrated Small Business Saturday by promoting small businesses across the city, but especially in Sugar House. Sugar House Chamber officials also created the Sugar House Savings Pass, which aims to drive customers back to the neighborhood. It unlocks deals and discounts at nearly two dozen businesses for people who sign up.
"Please show up here in Sugar House," Mendenhall said. "These businesses have been enduring a transformation. ... (The project) is a positive investment, but it's hard for businesses."
Helping small businesses, she explained, is vital because small businesses account for about 95% of all businesses in Salt Lake City, employing about 60,000 people. About 60% of all money spent on small businesses remains in the local economy.
"They're not just the character and the identity of our city, but they are the backbone of our economy," she added. "That's true all across America."
Overcoming obstacles
It came this year during a pivotal time for Sugar House businesses, many of which overcame the pandemic and a massive fire that disrupted the area in 2022 that drained any savings or resources. Plans to improve roads and utilities were planned through a bond residents passed in 2018, but some of the projects were pushed back because businesses didn't want to pile onto the pandemic's constraints at the time.
With required deadlines altogether, a few projects bunched up in 2024. This led to major travel headaches along both 2100 South and 1100 East. Many businesses lost customers because people didn't want to deal with the chaos.
"It's been challenging," said Becky Lyttle, co-owner of Tea Zaanti in Sugar House, adding that all the momentum her business gained since the pandemic "just stopped" during this year's construction.
The city distributed over $1.9 million in grants and low-interest loans to local businesses across the city this year to help them through challenges, according to Mendenhall. Tea Zaanti was one of the many businesses in Sugar House that applied for aid.
Lyttle told KSL.com that she used grant money to improve signage and online advertising to reach possible customers, especially people within the neighborhood who were more likely to endure the trip. It's essentially why she also spent Saturday at neighborhood businesses like Game Night Games.
"All of us are doing our best to our best to ... support what everyone else is doing because we all know how much it means to all of us," she said.
Hope on the horizon
Crews are still wrapping up some work in the area. Some lane shifts preventing a few left-hand turns between 900 East and 700 East will be in place beginning on Monday, city transportation officials said in their latest project update. Most of what's left to be completed east of 900 East will resume in January, after the holiday season.
Meanwhile, Utah Transit Authority's Route 220 bus detour will end on Dec. 8, bringing buses back to 1100 East in Sugar House.
Wiggins said December will be extra important for Sugar House businesses this year because of how this year played out and what's on the horizon. It could make or break some businesses. The Sugar House Savings Pass was created as an incentive to draw people in to shop, eat and drink in the area.
"Some of your favorites are still here and need you or else they will be gone," she said.
Next year's construction will impact parts of 2100 South, but Wiggins said it shouldn't be as impactful as this year because the 1100 East project is almost complete.
Local businesses in the area are hopeful for what's in store beyond 2025. Preliminary data from Highland Drive, where construction already ended, show people are returning post-construction, according to the chamber.
"What's keeping us going is we made it through this year and that's made us hopeful ... that it can't go backward," Lyttle said. "I'm hopeful the neighborhood will be more inviting for people to explore and wander through."
