For most of the nineteen years since its master plan was first entitled back in 2007, the corner of Highland Drive and Murray-Holladay Boulevard was the kind of place you drove past without looking. A former mall site behind a chain-link fence, waiting on a build-out that kept getting pushed further down the calendar. This summer, that same corner is where Magnolia Bakery chose to open its first franchise location anywhere in the country. Not Sugar House. Not downtown Salt Lake. Holladay.
That single fact says more about what's happening here than any list of new restaurants could on its own.
The Corner That Finally Woke Up
Holladay Hills, the name given to the redeveloped Cottonwood Mall site, has been entitled under a 2007 Site Development Master Plan for longer than most of its future tenants have existed as companies. The first real sign of life came in October 2024, when The Grandeur at Holladay Hills opened as phase one: a residential building with studios, one and two bedroom apartments, and 17 penthouse condos on the top floor, along with amenities like a year-round pool, a golf simulator room, and a dog spa.
At the ribbon cutting, Holladay Mayor Robert Dahle didn't undersell how long the wait had been, calling the project the hottest topic of his tenure and saying it was exciting to finally watch it come to life. The full build-out, a joint venture between Woodbury Corporation, Millrock Capital, and Ball Ventures, is planned to eventually include more than 600 living units and up to 750,000 square feet of office, dining, shopping, and entertainment space, plus walking trails, central plazas, and a park for gathering.
Phase one was the residential tower. 2026 is the year the ground floor actually started filling in, and the tenants choosing to fill it are worth paying attention to.
The Businesses Choosing Holladay Over Everywhere Else
Utah's newest restaurant and retail concepts have a pattern: they tend to land in Sugar House, downtown Salt Lake, or Park City first, then work their way out to the suburbs later, if at all. Holladay Hills is breaking that pattern in real time.
| Business | What It Is | Why It's Notable |
|---|---|---|
| Magnolia Bakery | New York bakery chain known for banana pudding and cupcakes | This Holladay Hills location is the brand's first franchise store in the United States, and the only one currently offering dirty sodas |
| The Sicilian Butcher | Build-your-own charcuterie and meatball concept, backed by Savory Fund | First location in the state of Utah |
| Sploot Veterinary Care | Combined primary and urgent care veterinary clinic, open 365 days a year | Its debut location in Utah |
| Bobby's Burgers by Bobby Flay | Fast-casual burger concept from Chef Bobby Flay, known for the Bacon Crunchburger | Second Utah location, opened March 27, 2026, next to Trader Joe's |
| Kiln Holladay | 52,000-square-foot flex office and coworking space | Opened February 2026 with a theater and event venue built in |
A second Magnolia Bakery location is already planned for the Salt Lake area this fall, which means the Holladay Hills store gets to be first by a matter of months, not years. For a resident, that timing matters less than the pattern behind it. When a brand's ownership group visits multiple sites around a metro area and picks yours to go first, it's a read on where they think the foot traffic and long-term demand already are.
Who's Showing Up For Work
The retail wave gets the headlines, but the office tenant list tells a quieter version of the same story. Kiln Holladay has already attracted companies including Mastercard, T-Mobile, Intuit, Penn Mutual, and Assos, according to Woodbury Corporation. Those aren't local startups testing a satellite desk. That's a Fortune 500 payments company and a national wireless carrier deciding their people should be working from Holladay on a regular basis.
That has a direct effect on the neighborhood that has nothing to do with weekend visitors. It means a daytime population that didn't used to exist here, showing up on weekdays and needing lunch, coffee, and errands run within walking distance. Mayor Dahle made the same point when the project first broke ground, arguing that the broader economic benefits of the commercial space shouldn't be overlooked, and that a rising tide lifts all boats.
What You Can Actually Do This Weekend
None of this requires waiting for the build-out to finish. The Holladay Concerts in the Park series is already running free live music at City Hall Park every Saturday from 8 to 10 p.m., with two dates left this year, August 15 and August 22. Bring a lawn chair, and you're a five-minute drive or a longer walk from a bakery counter that didn't exist anywhere in America a few months ago.
That's the part worth sitting with. This isn't a neighborhood promising that something interesting is coming eventually. The Sicilian Butcher's charcuterie board, Bobby Flay's Crunchburger, and Magnolia's banana pudding are all things you can order tonight, a few blocks from City Hall Park, on a Saturday that already has live music built into it.
Firsts Tend to Attract More Firsts
With roughly 750,000 square feet of planned commercial space and only a fraction of it filled so far, Holladay Hills still has a long way to go before the master plan is finished. But the last several months suggest a pattern that's likely to keep repeating: national brands treating Holladay as a place to debut, not a place to expand into once it's already proven elsewhere.
For anyone who's lived here through the years the corner sat empty, that's a genuinely different version of the neighborhood than the one on the old master plan renderings. It's not a promise anymore. It's a Saturday night with live music and a bakery line down the block.
If you're watching Holladay change from the inside and you're curious what any of this means for property values or the right time to make a move, RAD Utah knows this corner of the Salt Lake Valley block by block. Schedule a personalized consultation with Olivia Bostwick whenever you're ready to talk through what it means for you.