Developer Steve Aste announced Wednesday that Elite Model Management - the talent agency featured on the TV hit "America's Next Top Model" - is opening a Utah office next to his planned, $500 million Market Station development near 2100 South and Main Street.

Also on Wednesday, the South Salt Lake City Council took its final steps to fashion the Market Station redevelopment area, which will channel new property taxes to the high-rise, mixed-use project - one that Aste said will transform a "tired," industrial neighborhood into a dense, "urban village."

Demolition began this month on the 18-acre site, which by 2015 is expected to sprout 850 condos, 85,000 square feet of shops and 250,000 square feet of offices. When complete, the project will reshape the city's skyline with a 27-story building, rivaling the height of downtown towers. South Salt Lake expects Market Station, over a 15-year period, to hatch $24.4 million of new property taxes that will subsidize public improvements such as utilities, parking, open space and curbs. The city, which cannot use eminent domain within the new zone, also has offered 50 percent of its point-of-sales tax revenue - up to $1.6 million - generated by Market Station during that time.

City officials hope the project will remove blight from the aging neighborhood.

"I've been excited for it" to get going, said City Councilman Shane Siwik. "It's a great development that will change the face of the community - and the whole valley."

Aste, development director for Utopia Station Development Corp., is planning a groundbreaking in May that would coincide with the grand opening of Elite Model Management's new office - a joint venture with Pulse Model Management. The talent powerhouses, he said, plan to transform a portion of Main Street during the event into a high fashion runway - complete with some of Elite's world-famous models.

Elite, which has represented superstars such as Cameron Diaz, Tyra Banks, Uma Thurman and Naomi Campbell, currently has U.S. offices only in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago and Atlanta.

"We are looking to venture into the Salt Lake market because we have so many top models from that region," said Roman Young, Elite New York's new faces director. "Utah has been a gold mine of modeling talent."

rwinters@sltrib.com

* For more information on this South Salt Lake development, visit www.marketstationliving.com.

The South Salt Lake City Council, acting as the Redevelopment Agency Board, directed staff to study the possibility of creating a WesTech Engineering Economic Development Area.

Steve Brewster, president of WesTech Engineering, said the international company is growing rapidly and needs help expanding its headquarters at 3625 S. West Temple St. WesTech is looking into other options, he noted, such as moving to West Valley City, Utah County or Weber County.

If South Salt Lake establishes an economic development area around WesTech's site, new property taxes generated by adding a 100,000-square-foot office building could offset infrastructure costs. The expansion could spawn more than 100 jobs in the next 10 years.