City officials in South Salt Lake are working to help fill vacant ground-floor retail and address an area that was classified as a food desert.
Their solution, beer.
FOX 13 News spoke with Jonathan Weidenhamer, the Community and Economic Development Director for South Salt Lake on Thursday.
He says the area near 3900 S and West Temple was labeled as a food desert in a study that was conducted by Columbus Community Center and Parallel Strategies.
Weidenhamer says a storefront on the ground level of Harmony3900, an apartment complex at that intersection, has been vacant for quite some time.
“We do have requirements in a lot of places that require commercial storefronts and in this case, this one has gone empty for a number of years or months,” said Weidenhamer.
He says they have been working with developers to try and loosen up the rules. One solution discussed, allowing for off-premise beer sales.
“We think that limiting it to beer sales will be enough to get in, you know, a restaurant or, you know, a small retailer, bodega or even a little convenience store,” said Weidenhamer.