Church Opens New Meetinghouse in Downtown Salt Lake City

A new building is ready to open its doors in downtown Salt Lake City. Located just a block from Temple Square, this unique structure will serve as a meetinghouse for Latter-day Saints and as a commercial office tower.

Downloadable B-roll & SOTs

Spanish, SOTs

“The idea came to have a joint-use space and build an office tower and combine that with a meetinghouse, and it's a very economical way to do it,” said Bishop L. Todd Budge of the Church’s Presiding Bishopric, which oversees the construction of places of worship for the global faith.

“We started construction in April of 2019. So, it’s been about three years, but it’s a magnificent 25-story building,” said Bishop Budge. The building is the third tallest in Salt Lake City, standing at 395 feet.

The 39,000-square-foot, four-story meetinghouse is at the base of the new office tower 95 State and has a separate address from the office tower. A steeple was placed next to the meetinghouse entrance that faces Social Hall Avenue, once the location for Latter-day Saint pioneers to gather for social events. The original structure, known as Social Hall, was built in 1852 under the direction of President Brigham Young.

“This downtown block has always really been a place of gathering, a place of community,” said Emily Utt, curator of the Church History Department. “It's kind of exciting that there's now a new building almost on the exact same site that is a place of gathering.”

A memorial with remnants of the original structure is encased in an underground tunnel entrance to the buildings.

The original Social Hall remained a place of social events until 1922. A century later, the location will be a gathering place for today’s urban Latter-day Saints. Church leaders have named the place of worship the Social Hall Avenue Meetinghouse, located at 110 East Social Hall Avenue.

The new meetinghouse has two chapels, so it can host two congregations at the same time, each with a capacity of 500 people. Six wards (congregations) will gather in the building, including two for young single adults. The meetinghouse was built to accommodate a growing number of residential complexes in the downtown area and promote a more walkable community.

“If [Brigham Young] were to come up that escalator now, I think he’d be quite surprised at what's on this piece of land,” Bishop Budge said. “This will also be a very social place. … We have a beautiful outdoor terraced garden. And I can just see young single adults and youth meeting out there and socializing and building relationships with each other.”

The development also includes a roof terrace, which can be used by office tenants during the day and Church groups in the evenings, and a Sunday School room, where the women’s Relief Society organization meets, that has all the features of a traditional classroom combined with a spectacular view.

The unique development in Utah’s fast-growing capital city models some of the Church’s other urban meetinghouses in major cities around the world.

“New York, London, Brussels and Alexandria, Virginia, are all cities that are expensive and real estate is difficult to acquire. And so, we've been able to do these types of joint-use facilities to make it a much more economical proposition,” Bishop Budge explained.

“Having the office tower provides a source of revenue to pay for the meetinghouse. And so, we’re trying to be wise stewards of these sacred resources that the Lord has blessed us with,” he added.

Congregations can utilize parking in existing garages on Social Hall Avenue, with special needs parking available on the Harmons roof parking structure.

The tower and meetinghouse were developed by City Creek Reserve, a real estate investment affiliate of the Church. Okland Construction was the general contractor. Church tithes were not used to construct the office tower.

A public open house will be held at the Church meetinghouse on Saturday, April 9, 2022, from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. The dedication is scheduled for Sunday, April 10, and will be conducted by Elder Kevin W. Pearson, Utah Area president.