Over the years, when the streetcar sat quaintly beneath the Trolley Square water tower, it has been home to a number of businesses, including, Trolley Wing Company

The historic streetcar’s return is just one component of a three-pronged repositioning of the area, which includes the development of a multifamily complex, renovations to the main property; and an attentive approach to merchandising.

And they plan to do this while both maintaining and enhancing the property’s history.

In a recent Deseret News article, Trolley Square general counsel Taymour Semnani was quoted, “In the next couple of years, from a retail perspective, you’re going to see a completely different Trolley Square. From a historical perspective, (it will be) exactly what people love and know.”

With all the “revitalization” happening to many of Salt Lake’s most beloved areas, modern designs for modern living, you have to ask yourself how possible it is for something to be completely different while still preserving that which people have come to know and love. It’s more than just the physical presence of a certain iconic piece of history, isn’t it? There is an emotional aspect to consider—the nostalgic familiarity of a place.

“I think the current owners recognize the importance of that trolley car and what it represents. Trolley Square is such a unique and beloved landmark. I am just so grateful that it has ended up in the right hands,” Jess Wilkerson, of Trolley Wing Company, said, who is definitely interested in bringing TWC back to it’s original home “where we belong.”

The historic trolley is more than the sum of its parts only if the future tenants can breathe life back into it until it begins to exhale fond memories.