BOUNTIFUL — A book scheduled for release in February is planning to include the Renaissance Towne Centre project as one of 15 new urbanism projects across the nation that give much-needed revitalization to traditional suburban malls.
Construction on the project, however, has yet to begin.
"Sounds like it's a little premature, doesn't it?" Bountiful City Manager Tom Hardy said, adding, "We hope it will be a great new urbanism success story."
Financing has been the biggest stumbling block for the project, which has already received preliminary approvals from the Planning Commission and City Council, Hardy said.
One reason he thinks financial backing may be so hard to come by is because the center is a different kind of concept, and it is sometimes difficult for the financing community to catch the vision of mixed-use projects.
"It's not like a Costco. Those are slam-dunk projects," he said.
Residents and city leaders are still hopeful that plans to build a mixed-use walkable center in place of the old Five Points Mall, which is currently less than 40 percent occupied, will come to fruition even though little has happened since developers announced the project in March 2000.
"They are still working on it. They are actively pursuing it," Hardy said. "They are hopefully in the final stages of financing for the sports mall and offices."
The book is a product of San Francisco-based Congress for the New Urbanism, which promotes the converting of suburban retail centers that have declined and could use significant redevelopment into mixed-use centers that will be of value to the community.
"Renaissance Towne Centre got on the list because it was a regional mall being developed as a mixed-use project. . . . Not all of the ones on the list are built," said Steven Bodzin, communications director for CNU.
The book, "Grayfields No More: Failing Malls Become Thriving Neighborhoods," is expected to come out in about February, Bodzin said. He says he realizes many projects like Bountiful's have to jump through a lot of hoops before construction begins, and the fact it has received some preliminary approvals gives him reason to believe it is still on track and should still be a part of the book.
Developer Bruce Broadhead says he is still very optimistic the project will happen and says it is significant that the project has already received recognition even though it hasn't yet been built.
"Conceptually . . . it is a cutting-edge project," he said. "It has already been picked up on the radar screen and it will continue to be picked up on the radar screen nationally."
Broadhead compares the project to The Gateway in downtown Salt Lake City and says it will serve as a gathering place for South Davis County.
In the next 60 days, Hardy says, he hopes developers will have financial backing in place to start construction on the sports complex and office center.
Since last spring, the city has been eagerly anticipating the project as a way to give the slipping local sales-tax revenue a shot in the arm. The center would serve as a place where residents could work, shop, eat and recreate close to home instead of driving north or south to another city.
"We believe the project is absolutely needed," Hardy said.
Not only do the city's upper-middle class residents have few shopping options in town, but the incentive to stay out of Salt Lake City is now heightened following recent comments made by Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson concerning Davis County residents and the planned Legacy Highway.
"People have called me . . . and said if the mayor's going to call us no-good and trash . . . and the only way we are going to come into his city is on his terms, then forget him," Hardy said.
Some Davis County entities, including the Clearfield City Council and Davis Chamber of Commerce, are urging residents to boycott shopping in Salt Lake City.
Although the Bountiful project is taking longer than city officials would have liked, Hardy says they have actually done what they can to get preliminary plans approved by the Planning Commission and City Council so when financing does come through, the project can get started right away. In the meantime, residents constantly ask when the new center will be done, and city leaders are "impatiently waiting for something to happen," Hardy says.
Hardy says he expects the Renaissance Towne Centre not only to become a reality but to be successful.
"We hope to become the poster child for new urbanism."
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