Since they arrived in Salt Lake City two decades ago, David Dean and James McAndrew have been downtown business owners — and proud of it.
Their Tabula Rasa stationery store and Cabin Fever gift store have been staples of Crossroads Plaza for years.
But, citing frustration over a lack of communication from their landlord, Dean and McAndrew have joined a growing list of downtown mall tenants pulling up stakes prior to a redevelopment project planned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The paucity of information regarding the project has created anxiety for mall tenants and prompted concerned stumping in recent weeks by Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, which led to a lengthy story in The New York Times.
The project also likely will take center stage at a half-day seminar called "The Vibrant Downtown," scheduled for Tuesday at the Wells Fargo building, 299 S. Main.
For their part, church officials say they can't talk to anyone about the project until they wrap up other negotiations regarding the malls' future.
But Dean said he and McAndrew couldn't wait.
"We kept hoping there would be some kind of dialogue, because we did wonder how would we go about surviving that (reconstruction project), and how it would work," said Dean.
"You have to understand — we were focused on remaining downtown. We had been committed to Crossroads, through its many ups and downs. But this was something that would have necessitated a discussion, and to this day, to my knowledge, no one has ever been told a thing."
Very quickly, Dean added, "I have not meant to imply anywhere that we have any negative feelings toward the new owner or developer. There's just a sense of frustration and disappointment."
So, Dean and McAndrew chose to uproot their downtown stores, moving Tabula Rasa — with Cabin Fever likely not far behind — to Trolley Square. Tabula's new location is expected to open May 1. Negotiations on the Cabin Fever store are ongoing, but both Dean and Trolley Square general manager Dawn Katter say they are optimistic.
The question of what will become of vendors at Crossroads and the adjacent ZCMI Center was embodied (and perhaps overshadowed) by the fight to keep Nordstrom downtown. After announcing and reiterating its intent to leave Crossroads once its lease expired in August 2006, Nordstrom said in August 2004 it had been persuaded to stay.
But other stores were perhaps not so ardently wooed.
More than a dozen eating establishments have closed at Crossroads alone in the past 18 months. Retailers like The Discovery Channel Store and The Gap at Crossroads, and The Dress Barn and the Hallmark at the ZCMI Center, have closed their doors.
"I think something like 70 percent of everyone is vacating," F. Kelly Christensen, president of Iceberg Drive-In Inc., told the Morning News in an interview earlier this year. Iceberg left Crossroads in late 2004.
"If you go through the whole mall you'll see lots of the bigger boxes have vacated as well," Christensen said. "I know Panda Express, McDonald's and Chick-Fil-A are staying, because they've got the pockets to stay. All of those little Chinese, Mexican and pizza places are going to go."
In February, Dean said Tabula Rasa received a letter from the church, offering to terminate its lease. About the same time, Dean said he was contacted by Simon Property Group Inc., which owns Trolley.
"Obviously, their leasing department was aware that a lot of tenants were going to be looking at their options," Dean said.
For the record, Katter said Trolley is not courting downtown mall tenants. But, she said, "if there's interest from tenants in those downtown centers, we'd certainly talk with them. We've had contact with some."
The church in October 2003 announced its plans to invest "hundreds of millions" of dollars renovating and redeveloping the two downtown malls. The plan included and, according to church spokesman Dale Bills, still includes a mix of retail, housing and office space.
Since the 2003 announcement, the church has brought on mall developer The Taubman Co. as a partner, as well as AEW Capital Management, its real estate advisory firm. It announced the addition of an education component to the project and displayed preliminary artists' renderings of concepts under consideration.
When asked about communication between the church and its tenants, Bills said the church and Taubman are precluded from discussing the project, with the public or with tenants, pending the resolution of other negotiations.
In a lengthy statement released to the Morning News, Bills said, "As previously announced, Taubman and the church are seeking to conclude a development agreement outlined in a letter of intent signed earlier this year. Definitive documentation and final terms of the agreement are still being negotiated by representatives of both organizations.
"As we've said also, the scope and timing of the project are contingent upon resolving negotiations with a number of critical third parties. These contingent negotiations must be completed before more details can be announced."
Bills declined to speculate on when those negotiations will be complete, but he reiterated the church's "unwavering commitment" to downtown Salt Lake City, and to the project.
"The church is pleased to be working with a company of Taubman's stature and reputation," he said. "They are one of the pre-eminent retail developers in the country. Efforts to finalize a development agreement with Taubman reflect the church's unwavering commitment to the continued vitality of downtown Salt Lake City."
Bills did not disclose current occupancy rates at the downtown malls, but he said that "given the anticipated scale of this project, tenant turnover is inevitable.
"During this period of redevelopment, flexible lease agreements are being negotiated," he said. "For some tenants, negotiations have been unsuccessful, resulting in relocation outside the downtown malls. Additional terminations are possible."
However, Bills said, "Taubman representatives have said they expect a number of new merchants will be attracted to this redevelopment project once plans are finalized and announced."
Last week, the Salt Lake City Redevelopment Agency Board said it would lend a hand to displaced downtown mall tenants.
The board decided it will provide financial help to displaced mall tenants who locate elsewhere in downtown. That assistance will come in the form of grants and low-interest loans. The board also decided to let The Gateway shopping center accept displaced mall tenants without incurring a financial penalty. Because it is not in the city's central business district, tenants who move to Trolley will not be eligible for incentives.
Christensen said it's possible Iceberg will return once the reconstruction project is complete. Tabula Rasa will not.
"When we did this store in Crossroads five years ago, everybody was so excited," Dean said. "The new store will be even bigger, and better."
Tabula's 4,000-square-foot Trolley location will be nearly twice as big as its Crossroads store, Dean said, allowing it to expand its selection of Monte Blanc pens and introduce a Vera Bradley boutique.
Incentives or no, downtown's flux might still be Trolley's boon, said Jim Wood, director of the University of Utah's Bureau of Economic and Business Research.
"Particularly for the small, specialty stores, I think they will compete for tenants," Wood said. "Trolley has a fair number of those specialty stores, and I'd imagine they'll be the beneficiary (of the planned downtown mall renovation), at least in the short term."
At 250,000 square feet, Trolley calls itself a "festival marketplace," Katter said. Its retail tenants occupy as much as 13,000 square feet, and as little as 300 square feet.
"We have a unique tenant mix," Katter said. "We don't have a department store. We look for stores that are unique to Utah, tenants you wouldn't normally find in a typical regional shopping center."
For Tabula Rasa, Trolley was the logical destination among the existing Salt Lake shopping centers.
"Our customer is not typically really interested in shopping at The Gateway for the most part, because The Gateway has — again, for the most part — concentrated on the younger shopper," Dean said.
The typical Tabula customer, on the other hand, is more likely to appreciate Restoration Hardware or Williams-Sonoma, he said, or Ann Taylor or Harold's.
"Trolley has an ace in the hole with a lot of those stores, because for many of them, it's their only store in the entire state," Dean said. "Like us, they're destination stores."
Contributing: Brady Snyder
E-mail: jnii@desnews.com