The discussions now going on in Salt Lake City's Council Chambers about developing Block 53 — the block just north of the City-County Building — throws me back 20 years to a time I covered the then newly formed City Council.
After a personnel scandal, voters threw out the old five-member City Commission in 1979 and adopted a seven-member council and strong mayor form of government. Ted Wilson was the new mayor, and Palmer DePaulis (who would serve his own time as mayor in the late 1980s) was on the freshman council.
One of the council's first ventures into redevelopment agency work was Block 53.
The intrigue, power politics and financing of Block 53 bears a review in light of the new discussions, which are: Should the city take over a bloc of land on the square and build downtown housing, something the original developers promised but never delivered?
"Yeah, I see the city is talking about building (the housing). Good luck to them," says DePaulis today, now a state Tax Commission member after leaving office and working in the 1990s as former Attorney General Jan Graham's chief of staff.
The past 20 years show what can happen to a good idea that just never materializes.
In 1981, the city Redevelopment Agency, with the council members sitting as the agency's board of directors, decided to give a multimillion-dollar subsidy for Block 53 to a partnership of shopping mall developer John Price and Prowswood, a leading housing developer in Utah.
Citizen critics at the time claimed the city was giving a $3.3 million subsidy to Price/Prowswood, both well-to-do developers who didn't need such taxpayer aid. But city officials — who disputed the $3.3 million figure — decided the development was financially risky and wouldn't take place with just the private sector taking the initiative.
The original idea for the block was grand.
In the first phase, an office building would be constructed on the block's southeast corner. That building, anchored by the Salt Lake Area Chamber of Commerce, was built. The state built the Heber M. Wells office building on the northeast corner. And a small office building was built facing 300 South.
But the rest of Block 53's promise fell by the wayside. Much of the block has remained a huge black-topped parking lot. No housing was built, no gardens or landscaped open space.
Several years ago, saying downtown housing wouldn't work, Price/Prowswood sold back to the RDA a parcel of land north of the chamber office building, the site of its planned twin residential towers. It's that land the city is now trying to develop into housing — with the City Council considering just having the RDA build it.
If the city doesn't act on the housing project before the end of the year, Price/Prowswood can buy the land back, Deseret News city hall reporter Diane Urbani reported recently.
While no plans are firm by Price/Prowswood, agency officials recently told the city the developer could just build another parking lot on the site, banking the land for some future development.
In short, the city's RDA spent a whole lot of money on Block 53 with little — besides two office buildings — to show for it. The block today is not blighted, as some may have argued it was before the 1981 reconstruction started. But other office buildings, like the chamber building, have been built in the city without taxpayer subsidies.
If the city had gotten 120 units of affordable housing out of the deal, it would be easier to argue the whole thing was worthwhile.
Did politics play a role in any of this?
To some extent, of course. Any group of politicians isn't going to give a multimillion-dollar subsidy to a developer without it.
DePaulis says the council was careful in its deliberations in 1981, believing Price/Prowswood was the best alternative in the three-developer field that made final presentations to his council. Partisan politics wasn't discussed, recalls DePaulis, who himself is a Democrat.
"But I remember thinking at the time that it was very iffy if any of this housing would be built" by Price/Prowswood, DePaulis recalls. Price/Prowswood promised housing in a later phase of building but only if it believed the housing would sell.
There was talk at the time of partisan politics in the decision, however. Price, even back then, was a leading Republican. He has since become the major GOP fund-raiser in Utah. He raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Republican National Committee and the George W. Bush campaign in 2000. And Bush recently made him an ambassador to a small chain of islands in the Indian Ocean.
Another developer vying for Block 53 in 1981 was the Boyer Co., whose partner Kem Gardner is a leading Democrat. Gardner briefly considered a run for governor a few years back. The Boyer Co. is The Gateway developer, and the condo element of that development is reportedly selling well.
So while the 1981 council may have made its decision solely on which of the firms had the best plan and financing, the political question was whether you give a multimillion-dollar subsidy to a Democrat who had visions of running for political office or give it to a Republican who backs GOP candidates.
Who knows if The Boyer Co., or a third developer also not selected, would have constructed the housing? Boyer wanted $10 million in industrial revenue bonds issued by the city to help it build condos in its first phase of development. The third group — which included a developer who later built the American Towers, a high-rise condo project downtown, wanted to build a whole lot more housing, making much of it luxury condos out of financial reach of many Utahns.
We know Price/Prowswood didn't build any housing.
As the Salt Lake City Council looks at future RDA public/private ideas it should consider the projects that have gone well in the past and those that have not lived up to their original promise.
In the case of Block 53, the city has waited 20 years for 120 high-rise condos that never came.
Deseret News political editor Bob Bernick Jr. may be reached by e-mail at bbjr@desnews.com