A transaction that has been in the making for six months involving three parties with three separate lists of needs has finally come to a close. Holladay Mayor Rob Dahle described the deal as a "Win, win, win" and one Holladay resident and a Holladay business owner group would have to agree. 

It started when city leaders became concerned about how few parking stalls were around Spin Cycle, a landmark business in the center of Holladay and as they were projecting future need for more parking close to the Village Center and City Hall Park. 

Enter the owners of Olympus Clinic at 4624 Holladay Boulevard. The doctors wanted to sell off a .27-acre piece of their property that included a house with access to Locust Avenue. 

"We wanted to keep occupied residences on Locust [as it is solely residential now] so we approached the doctors and Dave Richards about a trade," Dahle said.

Richards owns a home on Laney Avenue which is in the ideal place for the additional parking needed for the Olympus Clinic and future needs for the Village Center. 

Richards said in a phone interview that he wasn't sure if this deal would actually go through as the concept seemed unusual, but he was interested in swapping properties with the doctors as long as it was beneficial to him and his family. Holladay city leaders were then able to sweeten the deal by offering renovations to the home on Locust Lane, using Community Development Block Grant funds in the amount of $55,000. 

Although the two homes are close in lot size (the home on Laney Ave. is .24 acres and the home on Locust Lane is .27 acres), and were both built in the 1940s, the values vary, according to the Salt Lake County Assessor's Office. Richards' house is assessed for $168,000 and the home on Locust Lane is assessed at $255,000. The value does not lie in the structures, however. Richards' home on Laney Ave. has prime access to the edge of the Village Center, and a parking lot in its place will be far more valuable to the owners of the Olympus Clinic and the City.

"We are going to make it more energy efficient and clean it up," Richards said. "We are going to clean up the yard and repair the brick wall and generally make it more presentable."

Once Richards agreed to the proposed swap, city leaders then approached the clinic owners to sign a shared-parking agreement.

"The agreement will allow the public to use the parking outside of business hours. The parking can be used for the park or the Village Square patrons. That is a big benefit for the city and also for the doctors, because the parking will be closer to the new building they are going to construct," Dahle said.

City Councilmember Lynn Pace clarified the transaction at the Oct. 2 Redevelopment Agency Board meeting, describing the impact of the Olympus Clinic redeveloping their property.

"They have property right now that would allow them the luxury of dual access through Holladay Boulevard and Locust Lane," Pace said. "By exchanging this property with Mr. Richards, they would still have dual access, but it would dual access between Holladay Boulevard and Laney Avenue, which is certainly more conducive to traffic with the Village Center and preserves the neighborhood feel on Locust Lane." The agreement with Richards to facilitate housing enhancements for the benefit of the Village Center Redevelopment Project area was approved unanimously by the council. Dahle said he thought the renovations on the Locust Lane property would be complete in approximately three months.