Church Releases Plans for Downtown Salt Lake

Downtown Salt Lake City is getting a facelift. The blocks just south of Temple Square and the Church Administration Building will undergo five years of demolition and construction to make way for a 20-acre development the Church is tentatively calling City Creek Center.

The plan calls for an indoor-outdoor mix of retailers, residences, and office space, with six acres of open space—gardens, fountains, pedestrian walkways, and a mock City Creek running down the middle, roughly along what was once the actual stream’s historic south arm.

Bishop H. David Burton, Presiding Bishop of the Church, presented a conceptual design plan for the project to the Salt Lake City Council on October 4, 2006. Demolition of part of the site was set to begin in November. A progressive wave of demolition will move roughly west to east, followed by excavation and site preparation that will take about a year.

The Church first announced three years ago it was planning to redevelop the downtown area to energize the economy of the city that houses its headquarters and to bolster the area near Temple Square. No tithing funds will be used in the redevelopment.

Bishop Burton shared with the city council design concepts of what the redeveloped blocks may look like, but stressed that final architectural plans will not be completed until 2007.

As outlined by Bishop Burton, the project will include:

• Up to three national department stores to anchor a retail component that will include a complement of nationally recognized in-line retail tenants.

• New, refurbished, and renamed office towers.

• New residential buildings.

• A full-service grocery store to serve a growing downtown population.

• The reopening or extension of historic downtown streets as pedestrian walkways through two of the blocks—Richards Street, Regent Street, and Social Hall Avenue.

• Fountains and man-made streams to represent the historic South Fork of City Creek, supplemented by approximately six acres of gardens and open space.

• Underground parking to accommodate some 5,600 vehicles.

A downloadable schematic site plan showing proposed locations of retail, office, and residential space is available on the Internet at www.downtownrising.com.