If you've lived on the East Bench long enough, you've probably heard both pieces of news this year and filed them under the same mental folder: the shopping center got fixed up, and the trail is getting bigger. One story, two headlines, done.
That's not quite right. Foothill Village and the Bonneville Shoreline Trail are moving on two completely different clocks, and knowing which is which changes what you actually do with either one this fall. One of them you can walk into this week. The other is a land purchase that won't turn into new trail tread for a while yet, if the county's own timeline is any guide.
What Actually Finished This Summer
Foothill Village opened in 1954 and has spent most of the decades since as a place you drove to, parked at, and left. That's the part that changed. Asana Partners put $25 million into redeveloping the 260,000-square-foot center anchored by Dan's Fresh Market, and the most consequential piece of that work wasn't cosmetic. It was structural: the old Stein Mart space, which had turned a blank wall toward the neighborhood for years, came down entirely.
In its place is a plaza with seating and gathering areas, open-air breezeways, and a colorful walkway with stairs and ADA access that runs directly into Curtis Park. According to the East Bench Community Council, that final connective phase began in mid-February and wrapped roughly three months later, ahead of a ribbon cutting the city and Asana Partners scheduled for mid-July. The underground parking garage got new lighting and an elevator up to the plaza level, which matters if the goal is actually getting people out of cars and onto the walkway instead of just repainting a facade.
Ashley McDonald, Asana's senior director of development, put the intent plainly:
"Recent upgrades showcase the premium location and merchandise mix while introducing walkability and placemaking opportunities at the center."
That's a corporate way of saying something a resident would say more simply: for the first time in the property's history, you don't need your car to get from the shopping center to the park next door.
The Tenant List, Sorted By What's Real Right Now
Coverage of Foothill Village this year has mostly been a list of names, which is useful but incomplete without knowing which names are already true and which are still promises. As of this summer:
- Already open: JD Flannel Donuts & Coffee, which opened its first Utah location on June 3, along with Mo'Bettahs, [solidcore], Flower Child, Slice House by Tony Gemignani, A Line Boutique, and the candle-making studio Paddywax
- Opening this fall: Zao Asian Café, targeted for a third-quarter debut, which lands right about now
- Opening later this year: Magnolia Bakery, taking a 1,500-square-foot space by the fourth quarter, and MD Hyperbaric, a hyperbaric oxygen therapy concept expected by year's end
That's more than 50 businesses across the property's two retail levels according to Asana Partners' own release, and the mix says something about who the center is actually built for now. Slice House and Flower Child are each opening their first Utah locations here, not downtown, not in Sugar House. That's a bet on the East Bench specifically, not just Salt Lake City generally.
The Trail Story Is A Different Kind Of Finished
Here's where the two stories split. The Bonneville Shoreline Trail's Salt Lake City segment runs 13.5 miles from North Salt Lake to Parley's Canyon, tracing the old shoreline of ancient Lake Bonneville along the foothills. But the system has a known 5-mile gap in the area directly south of Emigration Canyon, and right now the city routes trail users through East Bench neighborhood streets before they can reconnect with open space near the Jack's Peak Trailhead closer to Parley's Canyon. If you've ever lost the trail on a residential block and had to guess your way back to it, that's the gap.
Last November, as part of its 2026 budget process, the Salt Lake County Council voted unanimously to put $180,000 toward buying 60 acres near 3085 E. Sherwood Drive, close to Spring Canyon and the East Bench neighborhood. That works out to about $3,000 per acre, a rate Councilwoman Suzanne Harrison called "ridiculously low" and Council Chairwoman Dea Theodore called "amazing." County Mayor Jenny Wilson framed the purpose in more practical terms:
"It just gives people out walking their dogs or on their bike, or trail runners, additional opportunity to not have to go through neighborhoods."
But this is a land acquisition, not a trail opening. The county itself said it's unclear when the deal will finalize or when new trail segments get built, and Wilson noted that gaps like this one have historically been hard to close because the county keeps running into what she called repeated "unwilling sellers." This parcel came together because the owner had already received a cash offer and called the county first. That's a lucky break, not a pattern you can count on repeating quickly.
Same Neighborhood, Two Different Clocks
Put the two stories side by side and the actual news isn't that East Bench got more walkable this year. It's that it got walkable on two different schedules, and mixing them up leads to two different kinds of disappointment. Show up at Foothill Village expecting a construction zone and you'll find a finished plaza with a ribbon cutting already behind it. Show up at Spring Canyon expecting new singletrack and you'll find the same gap that's been there, just with one fewer property owner standing in the way of eventually closing it.
That distinction matters if you're the kind of resident who plans a Saturday around what's actually open versus what's merely in motion. The plaza is a this-week thing. The trail gap is a some-year thing, and probably not this one.
What To Actually Do With This Fall
If you're looking for a reason to walk instead of drive this September, Foothill Village gives you one that didn't exist a year ago. The new plaza connects straight to Curtis Park, and Asana Partners has said to expect community programming in that open space year round, which means it's worth checking what's scheduled there before assuming it's just a nicer parking lot. Grab a coffee at JD Flannel Donuts, cut through the breezeway, and you're in the park without touching Foothill Drive.
The trail is a longer game. If you already use the Bonneville Shoreline Trail near Spring Canyon or Emigration Canyon, the practical takeaway isn't a new route to try this weekend. It's that the public lands system that manages this corridor just got a little more room to eventually build with, on land that a private buyer almost got to first. That's worth knowing even if it doesn't change your route yet.
Two upgrades, one neighborhood, and only one of them is finished enough to walk on today.
James Roth pays attention to this kind of thing because it's the texture that makes the East Bench feel like a specific place rather than a category on a map. If you're weighing a move here, or already live here and want a read on how changes like these tend to move property values over time, James Roth is always glad to talk through what he's actually seeing on the ground.
