SALT LAKE CITY - City Creek, a stream pioneers found when they came to Utah in 1847, will return to downtown when The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints turns two city blocks into City Creek Center.
The church unveiled its design plans for the redevelopment of two blocks covering 20 acres of downtown Salt Lake to include outdoor water and open green space, residential space, retail and office space, and more parking.
Bishop H David Burton, presiding bishop of the church, presented the plan to the Salt Lake City Council Tuesday night. He stressed that these plan were design plans and that the architectural plans will not be ready until next year. The tentative plan for the development is to start the demolition by Nov. 1, finish the architectural plans by fall 2007, and complete the entire project by mid-year 2011. The project comes under the church's commercial real estate arm, Property Reserve Inc., and will not involve the use of church tithing funds.
The first step in the redevelopment is the demolition of the Key Bank tower, The ZCMI plaza, Crossroad Mall, and the Deseret building. A new four-level parking area will provide 5,300 parking spaces and will be user friendly with good lighting and plenty of head room.
The city will be reinstating the creek that ran through downtown in Brigham Young's time. This will include ponds, streams and waterfalls. Around the water will be green public open areas that will make up 6 acres of the new development. These will help break up the two blocks into eight pedestrian friendly smaller blocks, Bishop Burton said.
Several areas will be reserved for retail. Two stores have already committed to anchor the project, Macy's and Nordstrom. A third anchor store position is still open. Both the existing Nordstrom and Macy's will close at the first of the year until their new stores are completed.
Office space will also be readily available in the new design. The four towers that reside in the area will stay with the addition of a fifth tower to house more Salt Lake businesses. The Gateway West Tower will house the Beneficial Financial Company. The Gateway East Tower will house Zion's First National Bank. The Eagle Gate Tower will stay as it is, while the current Beneficial Life Tower will become the Key Bank Tower and the new high rise tower, which will include businesses Bishop Burton did not name, will be built on the corner of 100 South and Main Street.
The residential project will include one high-rise tower on South Temple and West Temple and three condo buildings located across from the church gardens and near the south gate of Temple Square. Two levels of apartments with up to 200 units will top street-level retail development.
Salt Lake Downtown will once again have a grocery store to serve the downtown community. Harmon's has committed to a 56,000 square-foot store with street level access. On top of the grocery store will be another condo development with at least 100 units.
Also built into the plan are three of four "flex spaces" which will be developed according to demand, Bishop Burton said.
The summary of the plan includes 260,000 square feet or about six acres of open green space, 85,000 square feet or about two acres of residential space with 766 units, 140,000 square feet of new office space allowing 2 million square feet of leaseable space, 375,000 square feet of retail space and an additional 5,600 parking spaces. The total area developed will be 860,000 square feet.
During the next two months the church is open to public comment through the project's Web site: http://downtownrising.com.
Other representatives who addressed their part in the development were Liam Taubman of Taubman Centers Inc. that will manage the major retail leasing, Laurie Harmon for Harmons Grocery and Dan Lofgren of Cowboy Partners residential development and management company.
Copyright Brigham Young University 3 Oct 2006
