Most stores - save for "a couple" - will close, though they could re-open elsewhere downtown, said William Taubman, executive vice president of Taubman Centers Inc., which intends to redevelop the malls for their owner, the LDS Church.

"The centers will not be operational," he said.

He wouldn't say which stores will remain. But Crossroads' Nordstrom has previously said it will stay open throughout construction.

While Taubman declined to say when construction will start, he told The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board Wednesday that even the most the basic mall project takes at least 30 months. The Salt Lake City project likely will take longer because planners must work around some existing structures.

Preliminary drawings could surface by late spring when the LDS Church and its mall developer may also seek zoning changes to accommodate the design, City Councilman Carlton Christensen said. Council members met with church and Taubman officials Tuesday, the day the church announced Taubman had signed a letter of intent to be a part owner of the malls.

"There won't be much resemblance [to] the old malls," Christensen said. "There's no way you have minor demolition."

While the malls will open up, with access from all sides, the design won't be so radically different as to look like the open-air The Gateway.

Taubman also said the new malls will attract a different crowd - older and more upscale - than The Gateway does. "There's enough of a market that we believe both projects can be successful," he said.

Taubman and the church plan to place parking underground and add up to 900 units of housing to both mall blocks. The amount of retail - now at 1.2 million square feet - will drop. Existing office towers will remain, though perhaps not all five. "If something doesn't fit, it's on the table," Christensen said.

Councilwoman Nancy Saxton said a bridge connecting Crossroads and ZCMI remains a possibility. That is forbidden by city zoning.

"They said to us there's still a huge interest by some of the possible tenants to have a second- or third-story skywalk between the two malls. That's going to be something that we're going to have to work through," she said.

She also said costs for the project have jumped by 20 percent since the church announced it would spend $500 million on the mall redevelopment and on its plan to bring college students to the Triad Center.

Christensen, an accountant for a church-owned company, expects the city will lose sales taxes during the reconstruction. He hopes The Gateway, Trolley Square and Wal-Mart will fill the gap.

"It isn't going to be without pain," he said.

hmay@sltrib.com