When it destroyed seven houses earlier this year to make way for a new baseball stadium, Salt Lake City promised to make it up by building new houses somewhere else.
City officials say they have spent $194,000 and bought a chunk of land near the stadium to keep that promise.They hope the strip of land - running east to west at approximately 1890 S. West Temple - soon will contain 18-20 middle-income houses, something the city doesn't have much of. Mike Danielson, the city's director of community and economic de-vel-op-ment, said he hopes the homes go for about $80,000, but the housing market will determine the price.
Within a few weeks, the city will ask developers to bid for the opportunity to build the project. The winner will buy the land from the city for at least as much as the city paid and start construction, officials said.
Mayor Deedee Corradini said the city doesn't have a specific project in mind, other than that it wants middle-income houses.
"We want the developer to come up with his own ideas," she said, noting the new houses will more than replace the seven torn down to make way for nearby Franklin Quest Field, 1300 South and West Temple. "We saw an opportunity to do more than just a one-for-one replacement."
All seven families who were moved for the stadium area have long since moved elsewhere. Those houses were valued at $50,000 or less.
Corradini hopes the housing development will lure some young families back into the city. Salt Lake City has lost about 30,000 residents since 1960.