Salt Lake City looks too much like a doughnut, with Main Street as the hole. The wide street is waiting, it seems, for investors, shoppers, even residents to return from the suburbs.
For almost a decade, the Downtown Alliance has been charged with bringing Main to life — and on one night of the year, it has succeeded: It brings some 85,000 revelers downtown to celebrate New Year's Eve. Now, of course, downtown property owners want much more. And the alliance, in turn, has asked for more money to do its revitalizing business.
Tuesday night, after months of arguments among downtown players, the alliance received a little more funding. The Salt Lake City Council voted to renew the Downtown Alliance's contract for another three years and to assess a 0.001425 percent tax on property owners. That's down from the previous assessment of 0.0016 percent, but the tax will allow the Downtown Alliance to collect some $2 million during the next three years — about $66,500 more per year than previously. The tax burden is being spread just three blocks westward, to include the lucrative development known as Gateway.
The alliance is in step with a national trend toward taxing downtown property owners, said Betsy Jackson, director of the International Downtown Association in Washington, D.C. Such downtown-marketing groups start off on voluntary dues, but many turn to an assessment district, she said. "Then what they have to do is prove their potential and how much more they could do with more" funding.
The alliance has become a fixture in Salt Lake City as the promoter of events such as First Night and the Pioneer Park farmers market. But many have complained that the organization isn't doing enough for them.
"It's hard to get your hands on the benefits," said councilman Tom Rogan. But if there is no Downtown Alliance, then nobody is bringing the various interests together on the path to prosperity. Rogan wants to see the alliance continue its activities — and he's willing to be patient about seeing results.
"We've gotten to point as a society that if we can't measure something, it's not real," he said. "But if we want to limit ourselves to quantifiable benefits, then we're going to limit ourselves."
Downtowns had better have someone speak up for them at the regional-development table, Jackson added. Our downtown "can either play a role in growth or get overrun by it." If no one promotes Main Street, then office buildings, retailers and housing will continue its sprawl out to the suburbs.
Salt Lake City's downtown has its own set of good and bad — yet very few ugly — attributes, said alliance director Bob Farrington. The positives: Salt Lake City is clean, relatively free of crime and graced with historic buildings. The negatives: Many of those buildings are imposing structures that loom over Main, and few boutiques have been able to flourish in their shadows.
"The lay of the land is not conducive to the density that makes a city feel alive and lively," Farrington said. "We have a fair amount of live entertainment, and we've got more retail than Denver does. But it's so spread out, it doesn't look like it."
And to companies outside Utah, our clean reputation comes with an image of people who don't go out much.
"The culture here isn't where people go to happy hour after work," said Farrington. "But people are expecting and demanding more life in their city. Every event-oriented thing we've done, people flock to. They have a hunger for it."
The alliance will keep its focus on festivals and lights, Farrington said. But Salt Lake's mayor hopes for more.
"I think it does a great job with events," said Mayor Rocky Anderson. "But with all the money they're getting, I'd like to see more emphasis on business recruitment."
Kem Gardner, president of the Boyer Co., agrees with the mayor on that point. As developer of the gargantuan Gateway center four blocks west of Main Street, Gardner is well-acquainted with the struggle to bring sought-after tenants to town.
"When we have our marketing people go out and sell Salt Lake," Gardner said, "most of these companies have never had Utah on their radar screen." The Boyer Co. has attracted dozens of those companies by now, signing leases for about half of Gateway's 120 units opening in November 2001. They range from the California Pizza Kitchen to J. Crew to Bright Child, and the Boyer Co. plans to announce about 20 more tenants by the end of next month.
Gardner was among the dozens of protesters who complained when the alliance proposed expanding downtown's boundaries to include more properties out to 600 South and to 500 West. The Salt Lake City Council ultimately decided to keep the border at 400 South, while extending it westward to 500 West — making Gateway the only addition. So the Boyer Co. will pay about $34,000 in taxes on its $23.8 million property.
Gardner decided to stop protesting. "No. 1, Gateway ought to be considered part of downtown, so we're happy to pay our assessment," he said. "And No. 2, let's get the Downtown Alliance working on business recruitment."
Anderson, for his part, wants to see such property owners take a community-minded approach to funding the alliance. "It really takes everyone joining together and supporting these things," he said. Owners of hotels such as Little America, just outside the boundaries at 500 S. Main, complained loudly that the Downtown Alliance hasn't helped them. But "there's no doubt that by bringing more life to our city, the alliance is going to draw more business for the hotels," said Anderson. "The (hotels) need to work more as a team."
The only point on which downtown players agree is that they need more parking. So the Downtown Alliance is working toward a uniform validation system, and Gateway may play a role in easing the shortage.
E-MAIL: durbani@desnews.com