South Salt Lake
"South Salt Lake is a diamond in the rough. People do not give it enough credit," Tereza Bagdasarova shared with a spark in her eye. "But once someone gets to know South Salt Lake, there's a passion behind just continuing to be a part of that community."
Tereza has been the President and CEO of the South Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce since the summer of 2024. She is also a City Planner. Her dual roles give her a unique and powerful vantage point to support small businesses while helping shape the future of the city she deeply loves. She grew up nearby, attending a school that borders Millcreek and South Salt Lake. Her early exposure to the diversity and strong community spirit of the area left a lasting impression. Her second-grade teacher, in fact, is now a South Salt Lake council member. From volunteering with Promise South Salt Lake to working with United Way, Tereza has always found herself pulled back into the orbit of this underappreciated yet vibrant city.
South Salt Lake only spans about seven square miles, but as Tereza explained, it grows to three times its population during the day because of the immense number of people who commute in to work. As she put it, "We're a city on the move." She proudly uses this phrase because of the transportation networks like TRAX that run through the city, the high density of industrial businesses, and the city's continuous efforts to create a space where people can live, work, and play.
The iconic South Salt Lake water tower is a visual anchor for the city - and a point of pride. Located above Level Crossing Brewing Company and featured in several logos including the Chamber's, the tower symbolizes South Salt Lake’s roots in industry and the arts. This is showcased through the city’s burgeoning creative industries - film production companies, breweries, distilleries, artists, and music spaces - tucked inside unassuming warehouses. What may look gritty on the outside holds magic within.
South Salt Lake’s creative community has coalesced into an initiative called Creative Industries, where approximately sixty creators - ranging from coffee shop owners and visual artists to musicians and filmmakers - are celebrated and supported. Studio tours offer a behind-the-scenes look into these spaces. One example, Space and Faders, appears nondescript from the outside but reveals a vibrant interior filled with soundproof rooms for musicians, rehearsal areas, and memorabilia from major touring acts. It even hosts monthly drum sheds, where professionals and novices alike can gather and play together in a circle of full drum kits. Another featured business, 1513, is a film production company working with major clients like Adobe. These events are designed to engage people who might not typically attend Chamber functions - young creatives, entrepreneurs, and those curious to explore their potential career paths. For Tereza, it is about finding meaningful ways to connect.
Among the city's greatest strengths is its diversity. One junior high school has over forty languages spoken among its students. This diversity is not just demographic. It is embedded in the fabric of the city’s services. Mayor Cherie Wood, inspired by Harlem's Children's Zone, launched the Promise South Salt Lake initiative to tackle poverty and provide comprehensive support for families. Today, Promise runs multiple community centers, many located inside or adjacent to schools. These centers offer after school programs, safe spaces, meals, arts, athletic activities, and educational support.
The Promise initiative is built around three core goals: all children should graduate from high school with post-secondary options; every child should have a safe place to go after school; and all basic needs should be met. The programs are deeply embedded in the neighborhoods they serve. At Central Park, boxing is just one of many activities. At the CO-OP, residents can access free co-working space, professional development resources, and business programming. The Chamber is based in the same building, along with additional Promise-run after school programs just across the hall.
Tereza's connection to Promise is personal. She worked there before stepping into her current leadership roles, and she maintains strong ties to its mission. The initiative is not just about services, she says; it is about building relationships and giving young people a sense of what is possible.
That same commitment to opportunity fuels the Chamber’s mission. When Tereza stepped into the CEO role, the Chamber had minimal infrastructure. There was no social media presence, or clear membership benefits, and their website was somewhat archaic. Tereza recognized that it was not serving as a real tool for the Chamber or their business community. One of Tereza and her team’s first major efforts was to bring everything up to the digital age and then continue to build on that momentum. “Things had become stuck in an old routine and was not meeting the practical needs of local businesses.” Tereza’s leadership has changed that.
Tereza has restructured membership tiers to be more accessible, acknowledging that many businesses belong to multiple chambers. She partners frequently with other chambers across the region, from Salt Lake to Chamber West, because, as she puts it, "we all support each other - we just want our businesses to get customers and thrive."
Monthly Women in Business events exemplify Tereza’s new approach. Not every business owner can leave their shop to attend a breakfast, so Tereza brings the programming to them. Past gatherings have included a storytelling session and water-color class at The Workshop, a fireside chat at Sims Motorcycle Monkeys with co-owner Robyn Sims (who previously worked at the Other Side Academy), a tasting and discussion at Indio Coffee, where the owner created Indian-inspired baked goods, and empanada-folding at Square Kitchen.
As a City Planner, Tereza is involved in economic development, including efforts to establish a recognizable downtown area and promote placemaking citywide. One focus is on transit-oriented development zones, where the city aims to increase walkability, improve lighting and safety, and support storefronts in becoming more approachable. Addressing the "missing middle" in housing - those units that fall between single-family homes and large apartment complexes - is a key part of this vision.
Chinatown, meanwhile, has become a magnet for new businesses and one of the city’s most dynamic developments. It began under Mayor Wood’s administration and continues to expand rapidly. From 85°C Bakery Café to bubble tea shops and unique bakeries like Fluffy Japanese Pancakes, the plaza is a growing hub of activity. Tereza noted that even more businesses are opening within the plaza’s anchor grocery store. It is not uncommon for new business licenses to come in weekly.
South Salt Lake’s culinary scene extends far beyond Chinatown. The list of international eateries and food stores is long: G&H African Market, Karim Bakery, Oh Mai (Vietnamese), Old Bridge Café (Bosnian), Cozy Coffee (also Bosnian), Arbat Grocery (Russian and Armenian), Best Chicken & Ribs Greek Food, Contento (Mexican), Mediterranean Market & Deli, and more. Tereza keeps a spreadsheet of the city’s licensed businesses, which numbers over 2,000, including many home-based businesses she hopes to support more robustly in the future. And, when a new one opens, she is always there for a ribbon cutting ceremony.
The Chamber’s Business Education committee connects businesses with afterschool programs and schools, encouraging volunteerism, career exploration, and mentorship. Through an initiative called “Investing in Your Future Workforce,” Tereza wants companies to understand that today’s students are tomorrow’s employees. Her own path is proof: she began as a Chamber intern in college.
What ties it all together - Promise, creative industries, Chinatown, downtown development, and the Chamber’s events - is the belief that relationships build strong communities. "Once you know someone, you know everyone," Tereza said, describing the organic way that collaborations blossom in South Salt Lake.
Through her leadership, collaboration, and genuine love for the city, Tereza is helping ensure South Salt Lake is not only a place of grit, but of growth, innovation, and community. "We are very community-driven, very small-business driven," she told me as we wrapped up our conversation. "We don’t get enough credit for how interesting and fun of a city we are - but we will."
South Salt Lake Businesses
