The new Gateway Tower West office building on the corner of Main and South Temple occupies a prime piece of real estate, overlooking Salt Lake City's downtown commercial area and many buildings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
For LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley, the location holds importance in both church and personal history. And some of the latter is not altogether pleasant.During dedication ceremonies Wednesday for the 19-floor building, President Hinckley said the same location used to be home to the Deseret News building.
President Hinckley said he sought work at the News in 1935, after returning from an LDS mission. But his approach to Samuel O. Bennion, the paper's general manager, was rebuffed.
And not very politely, President Hinckley said.
As he left the building that day, he said, he thought to himself that the Deseret News would want to hire him someday.
He was right. President Hinckley eventually served as the newspaper's board chairman. And there he was Wednesday, offering a dedicatory prayer on a new building at the same location.
"So this is a place of personal vindication," President Hinckley joked.
He said the first public building in Salt Lake City was built on the same corner. When it burned down in the 1880s, the vacant lot that remained was used to display tombstones.
But President Hinckley said no similar fate should await the site now.
The new tower, with the address of 15 W. South Temple, stands 300 feet high and covers 311,000 square feet. Ten million pounds of steel are used for the main structure of the building, which already lists Cordant Technologies, U.S. Bank, Arthur Andersen, Huish Detergents Inc., Novell, Gateway Dermatology and Arcanvs among its tenants.
W. Kent Money, president of building manager Zions Securities Corp., the commercial real estate arm of the LDS Church, said the new building had to be worthy of its location and aesthetically pleasing for the city.
The resulting structure, he said, should help make downtown a place where people feel welcome and safe.
"May (the tower) stand for many years to promote growth and activity in this area," Money said.
Salt Lake Mayor Deedee Corradini said she looks forward to the new businesses that will fill up the building, which already is 61 percent occupied. And she said projects like the tower help Salt Lake gain national respect and recognition.
"This city is really making a place for itself in this country and the world," Corradini said.