A month from now, Salt Lake City's economic map will be transformed — whether for better or worse, it's hard to tell yet.
When the Boyer Co.'s Gateway Project opens Nov. 1, it may herald "the future of retail in Salt Lake," as Brooke White, spokeswoman for would-be tenant Nordstrom, put it. Or, as critics say, the $375 million development might be the "cataclysmic intervention" that suffocates other shopping districts across the Wasatch Front.
The City Council, over the past few years, has tried to keep Gateway from being a giant Hoover, vacuuming shops and restaurants, customers and all, out of the greater Main Street area. Like Mayor Rocky Anderson, council members wish they could figure out a way to help the old downtown — and locally owned businesses — flourish in Boyer's shadow.
Main and Gateway will be "two complementary shopping districts," and both can enjoy success, Anderson says. The council has echoed that early and often, as if repeating it enough might make it come true.
But some business owners aren't buying it. Some more Main Street shops have closed recently, few are interested in moving in, and Nordstrom wants to fly its Crossroads coop when its lease is up in 2005. Last month, the City Council's efforts to keep Salt Lake businesses from relocating to Gateway collided with one shop owner's plan to go where she believes she will prosper.
Sharon Loya is co-owner of Bill Loya, until now a Foothill Village women's clothing shop. Back in July, she applied for a $60,000 loan from Salt Lake City's small-business revolving loan fund, saying she hoped to grow her business by joining Boyer's small city sprouting on 500 West. Then, in September, the City Council indicated that the loan fund wasn't for Gateway-bound businesses.
"We don't begrudge her moving to Gateway. We just don't want to pay for it," said council vice chairman Dave Buhler. "The purpose of the loan program should be economic development and job creation, not reshuffling the deck and helping businesses move from Sugar House to downtown, or from Foothill to Gateway."
Loya's loan is on hold. She is furious.
"The mayor and the City Council need to stop sabotaging local businesses," she said. "We have a right to conduct business where we choose." Further, the loan committee knew where she was headed; Loya had provided a copy of her signed lease with the Boyer Co. for a 2,300-square-foot store at Gateway.
"If they choose not to subsidize businesses moving to Gateway, why is there no communication" between the loan committee and the City Council? Loya asked.
Frank McCrady, the Community and Economic Development official who administers the loans, has been busy with other work lately. A U.S. Army Reserve logistics coordinator, he was called to Arkansas for active duty in late September and just returned home Monday.
Loya, however, is packing for her move from east to west. Her application for the city loan all but rejected, she secured a bank loan. She expects to open her slightly larger store during Gateway's grand-opening weekend.
"We need to expand our customer base," and Gateway is the place to do that, Loya said, adding that she can't imagine finding success in the old downtown.
"We have been around for 16 years. We would like to be around longer," she said. "Those of us who want to support the growth and prestige of this city should not be penalized."
The Deedee Corradini administration sealed the Gateway deal as part of its west-side development efforts. But Anderson, saddled with this inheritance, was far from enthusiastic, fearing that the Boyer behemoth would destroy Main Street's chances of survival. He couldn't stop Gateway from being built. But he could, and did, stop the Grand Salt Lake Mall from rising at 5600 West and I-80.
"I've always been opposed to the timing of Gateway," Anderson says now. But "we need to make that succeed as well as the revitalization of downtown. All I can say is at least we don't have a megamall out there."
Anderson has often called the Grand Mall the creator of "the worst kind of sprawl": highway- and car-oriented development. By contrast the Gateway Project just might end up furthering two of his favorite causes: urban infill and public transit. TRAX travels between Main Street and the Delta Center, a block from Gateway. And the city's intermodal transit center will be built nearby, bringing light and commuter rail into the west side.
E-mail: durbani@desnews.com