Now West Valley City officials hope to spread that ethnic ambience to dozens of acres just south of the center. Maybe a restaurant serving Pho Bo, a shop selling artisanal goods from Kenya and a market with a Middle Eastern-bazaar atmosphere could rise up on a makeshift parking lot now filled with grass and weeds on 3300 South.

"When people cross the Jordan River now, they see a vacant, undeveloped field - and it doesn't speak of who we are," Mayor Dennis Nordfelt said. "I want people - when they cross that river - to see something significant and know they are in West Valley City."

The site is envisioned as a nearly 32-acre welcome mat that Utah's second-largest city is set to soon put out to bid to see which developer can create the best plan for a Jordan River Marketplace to complement the nearby cultural center.

Although the look and specifics of the project are being left to prospective developers, Nordfelt has some ideas about what he would like to see.

"It would be a place where cultures could all come and find the products that are specific to [one of the cultures], and also entertainment that would be specific."

It could be a mixed-use district that includes high-density residential, commercial spaces, entertainment options and ethnic markets.

"We want it to be something really significant, something that would be a destination place," Nordfelt said, "and we also want it to create some harmony for the festival grounds and the Cultural Celebration Center."

Mixing the Jordan River Marketplace with the cultural center is a high priority.

"They are the anchor for that land there," says the city's project manager, Ralph Lee.

Lee has been working on land issues with the city, Salt Lake County and a private owner to revive - and revise - a 2006 plan for an international marketplace.

That proposal - also pegged to the cultural center - called for a multiethnic atmosphere with shops, bazaars, museums, open-air markets, even artists' residences. Many of those elements could return in this new plan.

"I would like to see it all being upper end, but not necessarily cookie cutter, a big restaurant chain or bookstore chain," said Ross Olsen, executive director of the cultural center. "I would like to see the more international flavor of our real community. West Valley City is the most diverse community in the state."

Uniting the city's many cultures is a top goal of the project, says City Councilman Corey Rushton, who envisions almost a "mini-Epcot."

Construction could start in a year.

The city also may build a road through the middle of the field, connecting 3300 South with 3100 South. But Lee hopes people don't just pass through.

"When they drive by it, it's going to suck 'em in, and they'll know they've arrived at a destination."

mariav@sltrib.com