For most of the last two decades, if you lived on the west side of the East Bench and wanted coffee or a donut from Foothill Village, you got in your car. Not because the shopping center was far. It's a five or seven minute walk from the streets behind Curtis Park. You drove because the center didn't want you walking in. The corner closest to the neighborhood, where Stein Mart used to sit, was a blank stucco wall sealed off from the sidewalk grid behind it. Foothill Village faced Foothill Drive and its own parking lot. It did not face you.
That changed this year, and it's a bigger deal than any single tenant announcement.
The Wall Came Down Before the Bakery Went In
Foothill Village has anchored this stretch of the East Bench since 1954, and Asana Partners has been quietly rebuilding it since acquiring the 260,000 square foot center in 2021. Most of the coverage this year has focused on who's moving in: Magnolia Bakery, Zao Asian Cafe, a hyperbaric therapy studio. Those are real, and worth knowing about. But the East Bench Community Council flagged the part that actually matters to people who already live here back in January, when an Asana Partners representative walked the group through the plan: the old Stein Mart corner was getting opened up so pedestrians could reach the center from the street behind it, to the west, for the first time.
The community council learned in January that construction on this final piece would begin February 15, with an original estimate of about three months. The work ran longer than that. What it produced is a plaza with seating, lined with retail and restaurant space, leading to a colorful walkway and stairs with ADA access, connecting the shopping center directly to Curtis Park. The center marked the finished project with a ribbon cutting in mid-July, as part of a broader partnership with the city to complete the plaza and pedestrian link.
A shopping center that has sat here for 70 years just built its first real front door facing its own neighborhood.
It's Not the Only Corner That Got This Treatment
Drive a few blocks north to Lamplighter Square at 1700 South and Foothill Drive and you'll find the same story with a different tenant. That center reopened its two-story state liquor store in March 2025 after five years of construction delays, and DABS executive director Tiffany Clason told KSL the larger footprint was built specifically because commercial activity in the area had grown enough to justify it. David Leta, vice chairman of the East Bench Community Council, put it more plainly to the same reporter: he'd always thought the area could support an upgrade to its retail and restaurant space, and he expected it to look great once finished.
Two shopping centers, both built for cars in an earlier era, both getting reoriented toward the people who live around them within about a year and a half of each other. That's not a coincidence of leasing cycles. It's what happens when a neighborhood's daytime population and disposable income finally catch up to the commercial real estate sitting in the middle of it.
What's Already Open, and What's Still Coming
If you've driven past Foothill Village recently, the tenant mix already looks different than it did two years ago. Here's where things actually stand as of this September, separated from what's still on the way:
Already open and running:
- Shake Shack, which picked Foothill Village as one of just three new U.S. markets it entered in 2025, alongside Clifton, Ohio and Ridge Hill, New York
- Slice House by Tony Gemignani, the 13-time world pizza champion's first individual location outside California
- Flower Child, the Sam Fox-founded fast-casual concept that opened here as its first Utah location
- JD Flannel Donuts & Coffee, Mo'Bettahs, and [solidcore]
- Longtime tenants Costa Vida, Honest Eatery, CorePower Yoga, and anchor grocer Dan's Fresh Market
Still landing this year:
- Zao Asian Cafe was targeting a third-quarter opening, which puts it arriving before the calendar turns to October
- Magnolia Bakery is leasing a 1,500 square foot space with a fourth-quarter target, its second Utah location after opening in Holladay this past June
- MD Hyperbaric, a hyperbaric oxygen therapy studio, is aiming for the end of the year
More than 50 businesses now operate across the center's two levels, up from a tenant roster that had grown stale enough to need a full facelift after decades of snow damage and outdated facades, according to the community council's own notes.
What the Walkway Actually Changes on a Tuesday
Here's the part that's easy to miss if you're just skimming a list of new restaurants. Before this summer, getting from the streets west of Curtis Park to a slice at Slice House meant driving around to Foothill Drive, parking, and walking across a lot built for cars circling in from the main road. Now there's a direct route: through Curtis Park, up the new stairs or the ADA ramp, into the plaza. For a household on the west side of the neighborhood, that turns a dinner run into a 10 minute walk instead of a car trip, parking spot included.
It also means Curtis Park itself functions differently. A park that used to dead-end at a blank commercial wall now connects to a plaza with seating, shade, and a rotating list of places to eat. Asana Partners has said to expect community programming in that open space year-round going forward, which is a different kind of neighborhood amenity than what existed here even eighteen months ago.
The Ribbon Cutting Wasn't the Finish Line
None of this means Foothill Village is done changing. Zao Asian Cafe, Magnolia Bakery, and MD Hyperbaric are still opening over the next few months, and the property's development team has continued signaling interest from additional retailers drawn to the upgraded plaza and the connection to foot traffic from the park. If the last five years are any indication, the tenant list you see today will look different again by next summer.
What won't change is the fact that a 1954 shopping center spent seven decades facing away from the people who live closest to it, and this year it stopped. That's a bigger shift for daily life on the East Bench than any single bakery lease, and it's the kind of change that shows up in how a neighborhood actually feels to live in long after the ribbon cutting photos stop circulating.
If you're weighing a move within the East Bench, Foothill, St. Mary's, or Olympus Cove area and want a read on how changes like this affect specific blocks and property values, Trey Leonard knows this corridor block by block. Schedule a tour and get the local read before you decide anything.
