This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Area leaders' downtown Salt Lake City wish list includes a public market in the vein of San Francisco's Ferry Building, a "world-class" sports and fitness facility, and a streetcar that would link neighborhoods around the University of Utah to the city's core.
Salt Lake City and County mayors were among those gathered Wednesday in the lobby of the city's recently opened Eccles Theater to tout the realization of one shared goal while they promoted several more.
The Broadway-style theater was branded a priority in the first iteration of the Downtown Rising action plan, written by nonprofit business advocate Downtown Alliance in 2007 to articulate a consensus vision for the state capital.
Other 2007 priorities are still part of the plan. Salt Lake County continues to negotiate terms for a decades-in-the-making convention-center hotel. The aforementioned public market and fitness center were called for a decade ago, too.
But county Mayor Ben McAdams — who recalled reading about the 2007 plan in a newspaper and being "inspired that I wanted to be a part of it" — said progress is afoot on all those fronts.
The past decade brought $5 billion worth of investment in the city's downtown, including 10,000 residential units and 2 million square feet of new office space.
Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski said 2017 is an "amazing time in our city center" and that the aspirations of the private sector "are aligning very well" with city ambitions — including a push for affordable housing.
Other goals for the next five years include building a tech campus that could lure businesses in a growing sector, a co-location for film and other media organizations, a downtown school for young families working in the city, and an investment in making Pioneer Park "one of Utah's finest green spaces."
Downtown Alliance Executive Director Jason Mathis said of the action plan: "It's simple, it's straightforward, it's consensus-based, it's direct — and, most importantly, it's changeable."
Mathis said there is no "order" to the suggestions but that a public market in the Rio Grande neighborhood — known today for the city's emergency homeless shelter and open-air drug deals made in plain sight of nearby shoppers and business patrons — could be on the immediate horizon.
City leaders expect to close the emergency shelter at 210 S. Rio Grande St. when four planned 150-bed shelters come on line at separate locations throughout the city and hope to revitalize two blighted, city-owned blocks between 200 South and 400 South and 500 West and 600 West.
Mathis recently visited a new downtown market in Grand Rapids, Mich., and foresees a similar facility drawing tourists to local food and other wares.
A similar Salt Lake City market would cost about $20 million, he said, half of which would be publicly financed. Downtown Alliance is working with a consultant to prepare renderings and a financing plan.