Salt Lake Tribune, The (UT) Date: November 21, 1999 Section: Business Edition: Final Page: E1 Bringing Back Main Street: Real-estate broker inches closer to his dream of downtown Salt Lake City reborn Broker Hopes to Help Main Street LESLEY MITCHELL THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE It is eerily silent in the lobby at 115 S. Main St., the vacant shell of what once was a bustling bank branch. But not for long. In the basement, Morton's Steakhouse plans to open a 6,500-square-foot restaurant. Another company is close to leasing the entire 35, 000 square feet of office space in the upper 4 1/2 levels. Several companies are considering the 9,500-square-foot lobby for a retail shop. And next door at 107 S. Main, Old Navy is planning to open a store. A Seattle company's purchase and overhaul of the two buildings represents progress toward Vasilios Priskos' dream of helping to revitalize downtown Salt Lake City. "A lot of people will be watching what happens here and if [the project] succeeds, may move forward with plans of their own," says Priskos, owner of Internet Properties Inc., which he founded in 1994. The brokerage focuses on downtown properties, many of which are old buildings well past their prime. Priskos plays a key role in E&H Investments' effort to turn four Main Street properties from 107 South to 127 South into a retail-and-office development. He brokered the sale of two of those four buildings bought by the Seattle developer and is marketing the unleased office and retail space. "People see my signs and think all of downtown is for sale," Priskos says. "I get calls daily from companies that ask 'what do you have in downtown Main Street for sale?' I tell them there's only a few properties available right now. There is the perception that everything is for sale along Main Street, but reality is much different." Property owners see the start of light rail and several downtown-area projects as reasons to hold on to their properties, said Scott Wilmarth, managing director of CB Richard Ellis' Salt Lake City office. Contractor Rick Howa, for example, is sitting on about an acre of property on Main Street between 100 South and 200 South. Zions Bancorporation owns the southwest corner of Main Street and 100 South from the corner to 124 S. Main, which is occupied by Edinburgh Castle, a retailer of Scottish merchandise. When Main Street properties do become available, they often sell swiftly, Priskos says. But filling them with quality tenants takes time, he says, due largely to the huge investments companies such as E&H must make to upgrade buildings. Without the upgrades, many old buildings remain without tenants for years. Most developers avoid upgrading buildings without some type of agreement from potential tenants. "This was a speculative purchase for E&H ," Priskos says of the four buildings on the corner of 100 S. Main. "They were vacant, blighted buildings and it was a very risky proposition." Dave Millheim, E&H's vice president for development, said the company waited until it had secured tenant Old Navy before it proceeded to gut the 107 S. Main structure. With Morton's in place in the 115 S. Main structure, it soon will begin renovations there as it tries to fill the street level with a retailer and the upper stories with office tenants. The facade of 115 S. Main will undergo a transformation. A spiral of bronze seagulls that runs the length of the glass front of the building will be removed and the ground-level entrance will be moved closer to Main Street. The E&H project is among a handful of sizeable speculative projects planned for downtown Salt Lake City. Another major Main Street project on the drawing board is a 20-story high-rise proposed by Chicago-based Hamilton Partners LLP for Main Street between 200 South and 300 South. The 375,000-square-foot project, scheduled for completion in just more than two years, will border the Hotel Monaco to the north and the Sam Weller bookstore, 254 S. Main, on the south. Like the E&H project, the Hamilton project involves multiple buildings and includes retail on the lower levels. But unlike the E&H project, only two structures -- the historic Lollin and Karrick buildings at 236 S. Main and 238 S. Main -- will remain and be renovated. The rest will be razed to make way for the high-rise. Priskos said downtown is a unique real-estate market because many property owners hold three or four separate buildings, which often are clustered together. Priskos is no exception. He owns Exchange Plaza, 51 E. 400 South; Courtside Plaza, 65 E. 400 South; and the Plandome Building, 75 E. 400 South. He also owns 268 S. Main, a two-story building that has living space as well as room for a restaurant and an office. Priskos also has been a business owner. He and his father Chris and mother Tula in 1981 opened the Royal Eatery at 400 S. Main. A younger brother, Deno, is in the process of buying the restaurant. Chris and Tula Priskos immigrated to the United States from Greece when Vasilios was 2 and sister Tessie was 5. Vasilios started Internet Properties after leaving a commercial and residential brokerage where he worked for five years. He chose the name Internet Properties because "I needed a good, recognizable name," he says. At that time he did not even have a Web page or Internet access, but quickly got both. His role as a real-estate broker, business owner and property owner makes him the ideal advocate of downtown and a valuable member of the Downtown Alliance, said Robert Farrington, the alliance's executive director. "He wears a couple of hats and it gives him a unique perspective on the downtown area," Farrington said. "He has been very active in the alliance and helps out very quietly. He's not somebody who toots his own horn." Caption: Vasilios Priskos stands in the lobby o own horn." n buildings his company is trying to lease. He hopes that a few good developments will spark a revival of Salt Lake City's Main Street. Vasilios Priskos stands inside the gutted US Bank building at 100 South and Main Street. The building is being refurbished for retailer Old Navy. Jump Page E6: The vault inside the old US Bank building sits open, but there is nothing to steal. E&H Investments of Seattle last year purchased the building and three others on the corner of 100 South and Main Street. (c) 1999 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Media NewsGroup, Inc. by NewsBank, Inc.