After sitting empty for more than four years, West Valley City’s old public safety building is no more. The structure just north of city hall and next to the city’s current police department was finally demolished in January as was the adjacent West Valley City Justice Court. 

The complex, which was originally an office building and not intended to be a public safety headquarters, had housed the police and fire departments for well over 30 years. That ended in 2019 when the West Valley City Police Department moved into a newly built 66,500-square-foot facility next door. The fire department’s administration and justice court are now housed at city hall. 

The city is relinquishing ownership of the now-vacant land, and it will eventually see a four to five-story office building and attached parking structure erected along with surrounding retail shops as part of a development by Wasatch Group, whose CEO is Utah real estate magnate Dell Loy Hansen. “We’ve got a great (main) tenant that’s coming in here,” pending city council approval, said Mark Nord, West Valley City’s economic optimization and redevelopment agency director. An announcement could be made in the coming weeks. He adds that it will bring a sizable number of employees to what is shaping up to be West Valley City’s “downtown” area. 

Nord says the project will start soon, possibly this spring or summer, after some more office space is filled at the nearby Fairbourne Station office tower, also a Wasatch Group property which opened in 2020.  “They want to finish leasing out the office tower first,” Nord said. Sixty percent of it is already occupied. 

Wasatch Group has further broadened its stake in West Valley City’s core with its recent acquisition of Valley Fair Mall from Coventry Real Estate Advisors and additional improvements are planned at the mall. “They really see the vision and the opportunity that’s here in West Valley and are going all in on it,” Nord said. 

Past, current and upcoming development around West Valley City Hall is intended to give the city a more defined central hub or downtown area encompassing government, commercial activity and housing. “We’re not there yet, but we’re trying to get there,” Nord said. λ