Holladay Hills landed on a short list of Utah's leading mixed-use retail projects at a statewide industry conference last week, a year after Trader Joe's opened as the development's anchor grocery store on the former Cottonwood Mall site.

Andy Moffitt, a partner at Newmark Mountain West, named Holladay Hills alongside The Point, the Post District and several other developments during a presentation at the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Utah's Trends conference in downtown Salt Lake City, Building Salt Lake reported. Moffitt said mixed-use projects remain a growing focus in the suburbs, with retail serving as the anchor that helps lease apartments above.

The recognition comes as the 58-acre development at Highland Drive and Murray-Holladay Road fills in with tenants that would have been hard to imagine when the site sat behind chain-link fencing for years.

A year of national arrivals

Trader Joe's opened its 13,397-square-foot store at 1895 East Rodeo Walk Drive on Oct. 31, 2025, occupying the main floor of the former Macy's building. It was the chain's seventh Utah location at the time, according to a Woodbury Corporation announcement.

Shoppers lined up an hour before the ribbon-cutting ceremony, the Holladay Journal reported. Holladay Mayor Rob Dahle attended the opening and predicted the store would spark more leasing activity.

"Trader Joe's coming to Holladay is huge," Dahle said at the opening, according to the Holladay Journal. "This could mark the beginning of one of the most unique shopping environments, perhaps in the state."

That prediction has started to play out. Bobby's Burgers by Bobby Flay opened its second Utah location at Holladay Hills on March 27, according to a Bybee and Co. Realty review of the development's tenant activity. Magnolia Bakery, Sploot Veterinary Care and a 52,000-square-foot Kiln coworking space have also opened at the site, according to a RAD Utah Real Estate guide published in August. The Sicilian Butcher has been announced for the development but has not set an opening date.

Statewide retail context

Moffitt's ULI presentation counted 35 big-box retailers in Utah's development pipeline, Building Salt Lake reported. Trader Joe's leads the list, followed by Smith's, Target, Life Time Fitness, WinCo, Walmart, Harmons and Larry H. Miller's Megaplex theaters.

Trader Joe's now has about 10 locations along the Wasatch Front when counting stores that are open, under construction or proposed, Moffitt said. The chain is targeting established regional retail areas with strong sales history, building new stores and hunting for existing spaces it can backfill quickly.

The broader retail picture in Utah is split. Traditional retail built between 2016 and 2025 in Salt Lake City's core averaged about 2.9 percent vacancy, Moffitt said. Retail in mixed-use projects sits at about 10.3 percent vacancy.

"Suburban retail is performing much stronger than mixed-use retail," Moffitt said, according to Building Salt Lake. Still, he called the mixed-use vacancy rate an improvement. Four years ago, that figure was about 30 percent.

What's ahead

Holladay Hills is a joint venture between Woodbury Corporation, Millrock Capital and Ball Ventures. The full build-out is planned to include more than 600 living units and up to 750,000 square feet of office, dining, shopping and entertainment space, plus walking trails, plazas and a park, according to the project's website.

Jeff Woodbury, senior vice president of development and acquisitions at Woodbury Corporation, said in the company's October 2025 announcement that residents should expect more retailers and businesses as construction continues. With much of that commercial space still to be filled, the next round of tenant announcements will signal whether the national attention Moffitt highlighted at ULI keeps translating into signed leases.