KBS Sells Historic Salt Lake City Building

April 2, 2026

Office Investment News Salt Lake City More Southwest

Originally developed as a warehouse, the property was converted into creative office space in the 1990s.

Exterior shot of the Salt Lake Hardware Building — The Salt Lake Hardware Building is one of Salt Lake City’s historic places. *Image courtesy of Yardi Matrix*

Dallas-based Dart Interests has acquired the Salt Lake Hardware Building, a 210,938-square-foot, five-story office asset in downtown Salt Lake City. The seller was KBS Real Estate Investment Trust III, part of KBS’ portfolio of funds.

KBS Real Estate Investment Trust III became a pure office play last year, when it sold the Park Place Village mixed-use property in Leawood, Kan. The buyer was DFW Land.

Dallas-based Dart’s portfolio exceeds $3 billion in assets across nine states, focusing on mixed-use, residential and hospitality properties.

A historic office property in Salt Lake City

Previously known as the Gateway Tech Center, the asset is an historic property, originally developed in 1909 as a warehouse adjacent to a depot of the Oregon Short Line Railroad. The building was renovated in the 1990s into creative office space, in such a way that maintained its historic character, allowing it to be on the National Registry of Historic Places.

KBS acquired the property in 2012 for $30.2 million, and most recently refinanced it in 2020 with a $22.3 million permanent loan from U.S. Bank, according to Yardi Matrix information. Since the acquisition, the firm has invested more than $9 million in capital improvements to the building and its amenities.

The property, at 155 N. 400 W., is located within a quarter mile of three stations in Salt Lake City’s transit system. The site includes an additional 2.5 acres that are zoned for mixed-use development.

Salt Lake City’s office inventory on hold

Office development nearly halted last year in Salt Lake City, according to a fourth-quarter report by Cushman & Wakefield. Office deliveries involved a single property totaling 180,000 square feet and no new projects were added to the pipeline in 2025.

At the same time, office-to-residential conversions continue to diminish the metro’s inventory, the report also shows. Some 957,000 square feet of office space have been transformed through adaptive reuse since the fourth quarter of 2022, and the trend is expected to further impact the market throughout 2026.