The 140,000-square-foot store would anchor a broader 18-acre development along 1100 South and 300 West, just two blocks north of Wal-Mart and near a Lowe's hardware store.

Rob Beery, director of design and entitlement for Colorado-based developer Miller Weingarten, said he can't release tenant names until they get formal commitments. But Salt Lake City planner Michael Maloy said the city has begun a public review process, and the developer has been very open in saying the anchor they're proposing is Target.

"But they've also told us Target has not committed to the site," Maloy said.

Whatever the store, Beery said it will not include a grocery element, since the nearby Wal-Mart Supercenter already serves that need.

The project also would include two to three parcels between 20,000 and 25,000 square feet each and three lots along 300 West with shop space ideal for small restaurants or banks.

Beery said the location is ideal because it has good access from the freeway system, and it's one of the northernmost, and biggest, properties close to downtown. But it will require the relocation of several businesses, including the long-standing Young Electric Sign Co.

Target spokeswoman Delia McLinden would not confirm that the company is looking at the site, saying only that a Salt Lake location is not listed among the company's planned grand openings for the coming year. But Beery said it would be two to four years before the business would open its doors.

A 140,000 square-foot general merchandise store would be bigger than Target's average of 126,000 square feet and smaller than SuperTargets - which include a grocery - and are typically about 174,000 square feet. It also would be two-thirds the size of the neighboring 205,500 square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter, which opened in August 2004.

City Councilman Van Turner said he didn't know much about the progress, but he added that "it looks like they finally have a location" after nearly 10 years of searching.

"It'd be a good thing for the community, and for Rose Park, because they wouldn't have to go all the way to Bountiful," Turner said. "It'd benefit the whole west side and be good for the city. That area has turned out to be west-side's commercial district, and the heavy industry is all moving out west. That works best for both of us really."

Not so, said Jay Ingleby, vice-chairman of the Glendale community council and a 53-year resident. Ingleby said the west-side community is being ignored, and it needs stores, like Target, by Redwood Road so people on low incomes can shop. Instead, he said, the east side gets all the commercial development.

"We need the Kmarts, the Targets, the Wal-Marts, the things that encompass the usable incomes that aren't used paying the bills," Ingleby said. "But they want to build big old warehouses out here and call us the slums."

If Target is the tenant, it would be Utah's 12th Target store and the sixth for Salt Lake County.

Target has 1,488 stores spanning 47 states, employs about 350,000 workers and raked in nearly $60 billion in revenues last year.

sgehrke@sltrib.com