WEST JORDAN — Call it this city's Magnificent Mile.
The sprawling retail center named Jordan Landing stretches from 7000 South to 7800 South along the Bangerter Highway. If you can't find what you're shopping for here, wait a few months — someone will build a place that sells it.
Commercial success has a formula, and Jordan Landing is following it.
"Residential comes first," said Jim Taylor, project manager for the California-based developer overseeing Jordan Landing's progress. "You gotta have rooftops. Retail follows residential, and then offices follow those two. It's working great."
It's predicted that West Jordan, population about 85,000, will be home to 184,000 people by 2050, more than 40,000 above West Valley City's build-out projections. Jordan Landing is fast on its way to giving residents a reason keep their sales-tax dollars close to home.
Five huge marquee signs over a one-mile section of road advertise samplings from among 17 restaurants and four snack shops.
Big-name retailers include Wal-Mart, Barnes & Noble, Lowe's, Lane Bryant, TJ Maxx, Office Max and Old Navy. A 210,000-square-foot Sears store and a still-unnamed 80,000-square-foot tenant are on the way. Several more additions to a long list of smaller shops are helping to turn Jordan Landing into a $125 million to $150 million consumer destination in just a few years.
Jordan Landing broke ground in September 1999, starting with a 24-screen, 5,600-seat movie theater. Soon came a Wal-Mart Supercenter, which by itself draws 65,000 people a week.
It's projected that upon completion over the next two years, there will be about 1.38 million square feet of commercial space at the 400-acre site. It's now about 60 percent complete, with another 30 percent of buildable space already spoken for.
In return, West Jordan officials have watched their city's overall retail sales shoot up from $468 million in 1998 to $684 million for the calendar year 2001. Sales-tax revenues to the city for the first three quarters of 2001 through the same period in 2002 were up 22.6 percent.
"The lion's share of that is from Jordan Landing," said economic development director Wayne Harper. That's in a time when Salt Lake County as a whole showed a decrease in retail sales.
"It's allowed us to do business as usual without having to cut back services in any way," said city manager Gary Luebbers. "Almost anything you want to do now you can stay here in town and do it."
The downside: increasing traffic. Residential development surrounds Jordan Landing, and higher-density housing is cropping up nearby. That means more cars on already crowded roads.
Some relief is already on the way. Starting sometime early next year, 7800 South will be widened from the Jordan River to the Bangerter Highway. It's possible a shuttle bus service from a proposed TRAX light-rail station at 9000 South and Bangerter Highway may also alleviate traffic woes.
There are also plans for an adjacent technology-based office park, which according to Taylor is the final piece of Jordan Landing's successful mixed-use development puzzle.
E-MAIL: sspeckman@desnews.com