The developer of hundreds of apartments in the Gateway area is trying to redo its deal with Salt Lake officials, changing the mix of Olympic media housing and affordable housing.
Developer Prowswood Cos. wants to postpone development of CityFront, an apartment complex on the old Se Rancho bowling alley site near the North Temple I-15 viaduct, until after the 2002 Winter Games.That means its other nearby developments, now in the planning stages, will have to include more affordable and Olympic media housing.
"We're a little uncomfortable at this moment because we're not sure what's happening," said city Director of Housing and Neighborhood Development Karen Denton. "There's some concern that the numbers keep changing."
Dan Lofgren, president of Prowswood, said postponing CityFront will actually increase the number of affordable housing units, which city officials are keen to have. CityFront's 167 units would have included 42 percent affordable housing, or 70 units. Lofgren now wants to replace that with the same percentage of affordable housing in the Cambridge Apartments, which he's planning to build north of the Triad Center before the Games. (Cambridge was originally planned to have exclusively market-rate units.)
Because Lofgren plans 198 units in Cambridge, it would have 83 units of affordable housing.
"I would be surprised if anyone was wound up too tight about this," he said.
One problem, however, is that Prowswood received a $1.5 million loan from the city and its Redevelopment Agency to acquire the CityFront site. It was supposed to start paying that off, oh, right about now, and Lofgren is trying to convince city officials to extend the terms.
"It could be a problem for us, but it may not be," said Deeda Seed, chief of staff to Mayor Rocky Anderson. "It just depends on how long he puts it off."
Salt Lake Organizing Committee officials say they're OK with the revamped deal because the total amount of media housing would not change, and journalists would still be close to the Salt Palace Olympic media center.
Lofgren wants to put the CityFront project on hold partially because he's afraid of saturating the housing market after the 2002 Games. During the Games most of the units will be occupied by many of the 9,000 journalists coming to town.
Not counting the CityFront
development, Prowswood plans to develop about 800 new units in Cambridge, the adjacent Northend Village Townhomes and the Boyer Co.'s Gateway project west of the Union Pacific Depot, making it one of the largest residential developments in the city's history.
"My guess is (the city) will work with us" in reworking the deal, Lofgren said.
You can reach Alan Edwards by e-mail at alan@desnews.com