The Municipal Council, acting as the city's Redevelopment Agency Board, unanimously voted Tuesday to approve an agreement with 200 North Investors and Block 29 Developers, who are building the Zions Bank Financial Center at 200 North and University Avenue. Mayor Lewis Billings said the agreement and the project are vital parts of the effort to revitalize downtown.
"This helps to clean up the whole area and continue the momentum to redevelop the area," Billings said. "This will be a legacy project in Provo."
Cindy Richards, Municipal Council chairwoman and a resident of the central city area, also had praise for the project.
"This is what I will be looking at every day," Richards said.
The project consists of an eight-story mid-rise building that will house a bank and retail space on the ground floor and offices on the upper floors. There will also be a six-level, 340-space parking structure to the east of the bank building.
The agreement calls for the city to give the developers 96 percent of the property tax increment the building generates between 2010 and 2021. Utah County would contribute 75 percent of its increment while Provo City School District would turn over 71 percent. The Central Utah Water Conservancy District would contribute its entire increment to the project. Tax increment is the difference in taxes between a property's undeveloped and fully developed states.
Paul Glauser, the city's Redevelopment Agency director, said the developers will receive $3.2 million in tax money over the term of the contract.
In return, the building's parking deck will be open to the public on evenings, weekends and holidays. But Glauser said the big return will be after 2021, when the taxing entities will receive the full amount of tax generated by the site.
Cameron Gunter, manager for PEG Development, anticipates breaking ground for the building in March. The contract requires the building's footings to be in no later than June 1.
The Zions Bank project is one of several high-rise projects intended to bring more business and people to downtown. The Wells Fargo building was completed in 2005, and the University Tower project is still in the planning stages.
dmeyers@sltrib.com
