Where there used to be an American Eagle Outfitters, a Speedo store, Mervyn's, Victoria's Secret and a nail salon in Crossroads Plaza, dark storefronts and white-paneled walls sit amid cheery signs promising change.
The change, though, hasn't come yet, after years of whispers and rumors about how The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will handle the massive redevelopment of its downtown malls and surrounding properties.
A church representative will speak Tuesday at a Salt Lake City Council meeting for a general update on the project. No major announcements are expected to come from LDS Presiding Bishop H. David Burton's presentation on the church's joint redevelopment project with the Taubman Company.
The church first released plans about the malls in May 2003, with a target start date of sometime in 2004. But in the past two years, it has said little about the projects.
Meanwhile, the downtown malls — Crossroads and the ZCMI Center — are languishing with empty stores, sparse foot traffic and no idea what the future will bring.
Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson has talked with the church about the project but would not give specific details about what was said.
"I think they've been working their hearts out," he said. "They're working really hard to make all these moving pieces fit. It's an incredibly complex project."
Much of the complexity comes from having to move tenants from long-held leases. One holdout is Utah Woolen Mills, which has 63 years left on a 90-year lease. Company president Bart Stringham doesn't want to give up the store's private parking and prime storefront facing Temple Square, which draws about 5 million people a year.
"We're dealing with the church, and they have a lot of power, a lot of say, a lot of money," Stringham said. "The holdup is that maybe we've been expected to just roll over and play dead and do what they will."
Utah Woolen Mills has been downtown for more than 100 years, including an old mill site where Nordstrom sits now. When Crossroads Plaza was built in the 1970s, the LDS Church negotiated the 90-year lease for Utah Woolen Mills, including provisions that protected its parking and store access through construction.
The company is negotiating to move during construction and to have guaranteed space once the project is complete, but "we're kind of stuck in the middle," Stringham said. "We're talking, but that's as far as it's gone."
Other firms have already moved, including another venerable downtown business, Bennion Jewelers. The company, which has roots back to the 1860s, had been in a building adjacent to the ZCMI Center on Main Street. After negotiations and a move to the southeast corner of First South and Main streets, owner Bill Bennion told the Deseret Morning News recently, "I'm not just happy to be here; I'm thrilled."
He gives much of the credit to Zions Securities and Property Reserve Inc., the LDS Church's real estate and management arms. "It was a win-win," he said. "The win for them is they can knock down the building early; the win for us is we'll be here for at least 20 more years."
LDS Church spokesman Dale Bills would not comment in advance of Tuesday's discussion with the City Council. Dave Buhler, the council's chairman, invited Bishop Burton to speak at the meeting. The council will also have a briefing Tuesday night about updating its master plan for downtown.
The LDS Church isn't the area's only stakeholder, even though it owns roughly $1.6 billion of property downtown and in the southwestern Avenues neighborhood. Wasatch Real Estate Partners owns the Wells Fargo Center, the Ken Garff Building and the Chase Tower downtown. Wasatch, along with Hamilton Partners, announced in February that it will build a 21-story building at roughly 200 South and Main Street.
That investment, the Salt Palace Convention Center expansion, and additional construction at The Gateway west of downtown have kept Salt Lake City alive without visible progress on the downtown malls. "Even though people would magically like to see things happen immediately, I don't think the delay has stopped other things from happening," Buhler said.
Rumors that the Key Bank tower over Crossroads Plaza will be demolished, leaving less office space downtown, have boosted business for Vasilios Priskos, a commercial real-estate broker who specializes in downtown space.
"The office market has just gone through the roof, and things are doing extremely well," Priskos said. "We have a lot more buyers than we do sellers. We haven't had that for a long time."
The combination of the LDS Church's billion-dollar investment and the Taubman company's development experience has drawn great attention from investors throughout the country, Priskos said. "You spend that kind of money anywhere in the world, and people are going to want to be around."
Despite the many dark storefronts in the two malls, several business owners say that they're doing just fine, and they give credit to out-of-town visitors who stay in hotels near the downtown malls and have few other shopping options.
"When the conventions and the tourists come, they don't know the mall is empty," said Azita Nejad, owner of Ypsilon in Crossroads Plaza. "We get great business, and that's why we keep it open."
Mr. Mac in ZCMI Center moved about 150 yards from its old store in the same mall and plans to stay open throughout construction — whenever and wherever it may be, said Stuart Christensen, a co-owner of the downtown store.
"We said, 'When do we need to buy the hard hats?' and they just don't know or haven't expressed it to us," said Christensen, who also said that it's been difficult to watch store after store board up and move out. "We're part of this mall family, this community, and some of the long-term tenants have closed. It's tough to see them go."
The downtown tenants who do stick it out through the construction may get some help. The Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce is proposing to split costs with the city for business assistance during construction. The chamber wants someone to monitor business access, marketing help, small-business loans and utility replacement, as well as parking and traffic.
"We want someone walking the streets looking after business interests," said Natalie Gochnour, spokeswoman for the chamber.
E-mail: kswinyard@desnews.com