Leaders of the new downtown mall redevelopment in Salt Lake City say the project will be the most upscale mall in the region and it's possible that nearly half its stores will be brand new to the local market.
Project leaders on Wednesday also painted a clearer picture of when the retail components of the project will be completed, saying completion will be way ahead of the typical seven-year time frame.
There are also plans to construct an upscale condominium complex on South Temple with breathtaking views of Temple Square, as part of the mixed-use redevelopment plan.
New details of the mall project emerged as officials from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Taubman Centers Inc. met with the Deseret Morning News Editorial Board Wednesday.
The meeting came a day after a Salt Lake City Council meeting where the LDS Church and Taubman announced they had signed a letter of intent, which will lead to both organizations having joint ownership in the retail components of the new development.
The plan is to raze much of the struggling Crossroads Plaza and ZCMI Center malls downtown, which are owned by the church, and to reconstruct new housing and retail components there.
William S. Taubman, executive vice president of the Michigan-based company, said he thinks there is room for both the new upscale development and The Gateway, a similarly upscale retail shopping center that opened in 2000 three blocks west.
"It will be the most upscale offering within the market as a whole," Taubman said of the new project. "We think we can provide a unique and different experience, an experience that will be far more dramatic than what exists at the suburban malls today."
Gateway will continue to appeal to a younger crowd, Taubman said, while the new retail development downtown will catch the shopper between the ages of 25 to 40.
"Younger business will gravitate more toward Gateway," he said.
Typically, Taubman said, when his company launches a new retail project, 50 percent of the stores are unique to the local market. Because of Taubman's experience in malls across the nation, it can draw on contacts with hundreds of the nation's premier retailers, he said.
"People come to shop first and foremost for the stores," he said. "We will have a unique set of stores that will provide a reason for people to come downtown."
Presiding Bishop H. David Burton, who oversees the development for the LDS Church, said ideas for housing at the mixed-use development are evolving but should include upscale condo "locations overlooking South Temple" as well as more "moderately priced housing."
Bishop Burton also said the church will likely move all existing tenants, including KSL-TV and KSL Radio, out of Triad in the future. Those moves will make way for Brigham Young University/Salt Lake and LDS Business College to hold classes there.
Bishop Burton announced Tuesday that the mall redevelopment will likely include 900 housing units — a significant increase from previous plans.
"Urban sprawl plays a part," he said Wednesday. "People are getting tired of commuting into the valley."
Bruce Heckman, vice president of development for Taubman Co., said a normal company project takes seven to eight years to complete.
"We're certainly going to beat that (time frame) here," he said. "We're going to be way ahead of that."
Bishop Burton said once plans are finalized and retail contracts in place, construction should take about three years.
Taubman, a publicly traded company, is one of the premier retail developers in the nation. In 2003 Taubman malls reached sales of $468 per square foot, a record for the company that has led the industry in sales per square foot for decades.
E-mail: bsnyder@desnews.com