Demolition will begin on the LDS Church's much-awaited downtown redevelopment project next month, the beginning of what is expected to be five years of work on the core of Salt Lake City.
Bishop H. David Burton, presiding bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is briefing the Salt Lake City Council on its plan for the development, tentatively called City Creek Center, this afternoon.
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"More than 240 retail and office tenants have worked with us to make this happen," Burton said in a prepared statement released prior to the City Council meeting. "Many are relocating; many are staying in place. Everybody — leaseholders, the City Council, Mayor (Rocky) Anderson, city staff and our team of planners, architects and developers — have all come together in the best interest of the future of our city."
The key points:
The development will include retail, housing and office components. Demolition will begin in early November, progressing from west to east. It will start at the northwest end of the redevelopment site, a 20-acre plot roughly bounded by South Temple, 200 East, 100 South and West Temple.
At least six buildings will be demolished, including both Crossroads Plaza and ZCMI Center malls. Most of the mall retailers will either close or relocate. Nordstrom and Macy's department stores will close in January (Nordstrom on Jan. 20). They will reopen when the project is complete — expected to be in 2011 — along with a possible third, and as yet unnamed, anchor retailer.
Retail on church-owned property, which includes the malls and its anchors, will be open six days a week. Alcohol will not be served on church property, but privately owned facilities, such as the Marriott hotel and other possible fine dining spots, will not face that restriction.
The development will include six acres of green space, including outdoor pedestrian avenues at Regent and Richards streets and Social Hall Avenue. A pedestrian bridge will cross mid-block on Main Street, but it will not disturb TRAX service. The development also will feature a "representation" of City Creek, which will meander through the site.
The following buildings will remain: the Utah Woolen Mills store and parking facility, the Gateway West Tower, Zions Bank, Eagle Gate buildings on South Temple, Beneficial Financial Group, AT&T/Qwest building on State Street, the Crandall McIntyre building (which houses Rite Aid and other offices on State Street) and the Salt Lake City Marriott Downtown at 75 S. West Temple.
In addition to the malls, the following buildings are slated for demolition: the Key Bank building, which will make way for retail development; the Inn at Temple Square; and the historic First Security building on 100 South and Main Street.
The Beneficial Financial Group will move to the Gateway Tower West, which will be renamed the Beneficial Financial Group Tower. Key Bank will move in the spring to what is now the Beneficial Financial Group Tower at 36 S. State, which will be renamed the Key Bank Tower. The George S. and Delores Dore Eccles Foundation and the Wells Fargo bank branch will be relocated on a temporary basis and then reopen at that location once the new building is finished.
During construction, street-level space at the Eagle Gate Tower at South Temple and State, as well as the lower level of the new Key Bank Tower, will house "a few retail shops" and a food court. Information about which retailers and food vendors will be included at those locations was not immediately available.
Housing will be built along South Temple (200 units) and south of Social Hall Avenue (about another 100 units). Cowboy Partners, a Utah-based residential development and management company, will develop the Social Hall units. Cowboy's other projects have included The Parc at The Gateway and Liberty Hill townhouses in Draper.
Harmons will build a full-service grocery store on the Social Hall Avenue block, where there is now green space and a parking lot.
In the statement released Tuesday, the church said it "sees the development of the three city-center blocks as an integral part of the broader revitalization of the central city — including The Gateway and expanded educational facilities at Triad Center — all working together to create a vibrant and attractive downtown."
No details about the cost of the development were disclosed before Bishop Burton's presentation Tuesday, though estimates have ranged from $1 billion to $2 billion.
E-mail: jnii@desnews.com