We believe that
everyone
deserves a decent place to live.
We help families find strength, stability and self-reliance through affordable homeownership.
Salt Lake City is transforming a long-vacant parcel at 800 South, between 300 and 400 West—the former city fleet maintenance facility—into a vibrant, mixed-use neighborhood. Known as the Fleet Block Project, this redevelopment spans roughly 8.75 to 10 acres and will bring together housing, local businesses, community amenities, and public open space in a walkable, inclusive design.
What makes this effort especially hopeful is the city’s commitment to balance new investment with remembrance—to ensure the voices of neighbors, families, and communities directly affected by tragic loss help shape the transformation.
From Murals to Momentum
In 2020, the Fleet Block became a place of remembrance. Local artists and families painted murals across its walls, honoring loved ones who died during encounters with police. These murals turned a vacant city block into a place of grief, memory, and community.
Before demolition began in 2025, the city worked with families to preserve this history, commissioning professional photographs to document the murals. Now, community members are helping guide how memorials, public art, and gathering spaces will carry that spirit forward in the new neighborhood.
From Partners In Progress
In August 2025, Salt Lake City selected Mercy Housing, Habitat for Humanity Greater Salt Lake Area, and Brinshore Development to lead redevelopment of the northern parcels. Mercy Housing is one of the nation’s largest nonprofit affordable housing providers, and Brinshore has delivered other Salt Lake communities such as SPARK and Aster.
Plans call for mid-rise and high-rise housing, ground-floor retail, and internal walkways that make the block more connected and welcoming. Brinshore’s early concept includes two towers with a central plaza and more than 200 homes. New zoning allows buildings up to 125 feet tall, showing Salt Lake City’s commitment to building for the future.
The Heart of the Block: Open Space
Three acres on the southeast corner of the site will become public open space: a place where children can play, neighbors can gather, and art can inspire reflection. The design will be guided by the community through workshops, surveys, and conversations happening throughout 2025. This space will also include commissioned artwork. Construction of the open space and memorial art is expected to begin in 2027.
Community Benefits and Accountability
The Fleet Block Project is being built with a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA), ensuring that development reflects what neighbors want most: public art, local business opportunities, childcare, and affordable housing. Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall has emphasized that residents will be the ones setting these priorities, so the project remains rooted in the voices of the people who live here.
Homes That Build Strength
In Fleet Block, Habitat’s presence ensures that affordable homeownership opportunities are part of the neighborhood’s foundation. This means more families will have the chance to put down roots in the city—strengthening not only their own futures, but the future of the community as a whole.
A cornerstone of the project is the involvement of Habitat for Humanity Greater Salt Lake Area. For more than 30 years, Habitat has partnered with families across Salt Lake, Davis, and Tooele counties to help them build and buy affordable homes. Future homeowners invest hundreds of hours of “sweat equity” by helping build their homes and those of their neighbors, while volunteers and donors work alongside them. Families then purchase their homes with affordable mortgages, creating stability and self-reliance.
Looking Ahead With Hope
The Fleet Block Project is more than construction. It’s about building a neighborhood where every family has a fair chance to thrive. It’s about honoring history, lifting up voices, and creating spaces that connect people.
With strong partners, clear commitments, and a focus on dignity, Salt Lake City is turning a long-vacant block into a place filled with possibility. Together, we are building not just homes, but hope for generations to come. Find out how you can help.
When the Holiday Inn Express in Bountiful was scheduled for demolition, hundreds of beds, desks, chairs, and tables faced an uncertain fate. Instead of sending these furnishings to a landfill, they found new homes — thanks to a collaboration between Habitat for Humanity Greater Salt Lake Area and the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT). Together, we transformed demolition into opportunity, creating lasting impact for families, nonprofits, and communities across Utah.
Turning Transition into Renewal
Before the building came down, UDOT reached out to Habitat to help clear out the hotel. Our Habitat ReStore team immediately stepped in, moving furniture and household items into our retail locations.
For low- to moderate-income families, these furnishings weren’t just items — they were a chance to bring stability, comfort, and dignity into their homes.
At ReStore, shoppers now access high-quality, affordable furniture while knowing every purchase directly supports our mission of building homes, communities, and hope.
Habitat Cares in Action
Through our Habitat Cares program, valuable resources extended beyond ReStore to nonprofits across the state. Together, we partnered with organizations serving Utah’s most vulnerable communities:
- Ability Inclusion Services — We set aside 12 complete bedroom sets (queen bed with frame, armoire, dresser) for their new facility in West Valley, creating welcoming spaces for residents.
- Asian Association of Utah — With support from Jess Haro at Rooms Restored and the Malouf Foundation, we donated lobby furniture to furnish a dedicated meeting space for trafficking survivors.
- Utah Women in Trades — Volunteers from this group helped us move hotel furniture and materials into trucks. They also gained access to deeply discounted linens, towels, and lamps — resources that support women entering skilled trades.
- The Other Side Academy — We provided mattress sets for their residential program and resale stores. In return, their team assisted with logistics, multiplying the reach of our shared mission.
Our ReStore delivery drivers and dock workers managed logistics and ensured every piece reached the right destination. For The Other Side Academy, the addition of new beds meant expanding their capacity and welcoming more people into safe, stable housing — a measurable increase in lives transformed.
Building Beyond the Hotel Walls
This collaboration demonstrates that Habitat’s work goes far beyond hammers and nails. By partnering with UDOT, nonprofits, and families, we gave hundreds of items a second life — turning waste into opportunity.
- For ReStore shoppers: Affordable furnishings that transform a house into a home.
- For nonprofits: Resources that strengthen programs and extend community impact.
- For individuals served: The gift of a bed, a desk, or a table — along with dignity, stability, and hope.
Together, We Build Hope
Every demolition is also a chance to build something greater. The story of the Holiday Inn Express didn’t end with rubble; it lives on in homes, classrooms, workshops, and safe places for recovery across Utah.
When we work together, we turn transition into transformation. And that’s what Habitat does best: bringing people together to build homes, communities, and hope.
You can join this story. Every purchase at our Habitat ReStore helps build affordable housing right here in our community. By donating gently used items or choosing to shop sustainably, you help us reduce waste, support families, and create brighter futures across Utah.
Visit our local Habitat ReStore to shop or donate gently used items by visiting our donation website: https://restore.habitatsaltlake.org/
Get ready for an unforgettable evening at the Do More Concert on September 19, 2025, at SKY SLC. This special event features a Grammy-nominated artist live in an intimate setting — a rare treat for Utah music lovers!
But this concert is about more than great music. All proceeds from ticket sales directly benefit affordable homeownership programs through Habitat for Humanity of the Greater Salt Lake Area, helping Utah families build strength, stability, and a brighter future.
Don’t miss your chance to be part of an incredible night filled with purpose and community impact.
🎟 Tickets and details: https://www.eventcreate.com/e/domore2025
"When we invite people to build homes, we invite them to build communities, stability—and lasting opportunity."
Carin Crowe, CEO of Habitat for Humanity Greater Salt Lake Area—and recently named one of Utah Business’s Most Influential Women of 2025—champions collaboration and creative impact. Her leadership has balanced sustainable innovation in our ReStore (diverting 9,000+ tons from landfills while generating revenue for housing) with bold advocacy that shifts policy conversations from “if” to “how” we ensure affordable housing for all. We’re grateful for the partnerships, volunteers, donors, and community leaders who make our work possible.
Read the article from Utah Business Magazine here.
