Demolished Tooele hotel site to become a space for housing and retail
Dec 5, 2024, 7:00 PM | Updated: 8:16 pm
Crews respond to a fire in Tooele on July 5, 2020. (Emily Smith/via KSL TV)
(Emily Smith/via KSL TV)
TOOELE, Utah — A pile of toxic debris that used to be Tooele’s Broadway Hotel could soon transform into housing and retail space.
The old Tooele hotel was demolished before asbestos could be removed, and it’s been that way for more than a year. Tooele City Economic Development Director John Perez said the city recently purchased the site.
The former owner was also ordered to pay $40,000 to a demolition worker who was exposed to the asbestos.
“Since we’ve acquired it, we’ve already put up some fencing in the area just because we don’t want any issues with people entering any unsafe structures,” said Perez.
Tooele managers plan on turning the site into a mixed-use development, Perez said. The first floor will be for commercial use. The top floor will be residential.
But first, the state’s Brownfields Program will examine the soil for contamination. The city also plans on doing a cleanup of the site using money from the program.
“We are evaluating the soil in the Broadway Hotel area to see if previous cleanup efforts have been successful and then what, if any, further action needs to be taken.”
Construction will begin after the soil testing produces a clean bill of health.
