Now Ogden is poised to build and sell look-alike thrills in a new downtown project that will replace the failed Ogden City Mall.

After listening to four hours of impassioned comment by Ogden residents, business leaders and current and former state lawmakers, the Redevelopment Agency Board on Tuesday agreed to borrow $18.5 million to build a high adventure recreation center.

Besides a Gold's Gym and a Fat Cats entertainment center, the recreation center will have attractions that give it its name: an air tunnel for simulated skydiving, a wave pool for board riding, and a 72-foot high climbing wall.

The city will own the building, the air tunnel and wave pool, but the operation will be run by a partnership of two businesses, Gold's Gym and Fat Cats.

The city intends to sell $16.2 million in bonds and borrow $2 million from HUD for the project. The council previously put a cap of $20 million on the project.

The council was bombarded with more than 300 phone calls, e-mails and letters in recent days and the biggest crowd in four years - about 150 - packed the council chambers for the debate.

Those speaking against the rec center said they didn't so much oppose the project as the financing for it. Their opposition was drowned out by residents who called on the board to take the risk that the rec center will spark a renewal of the city's core.

"It's pretty clear this is the right project at the right time," said Ian Hueton, chairman of the city's parks and recreation advisory board, which had been on the fence about the project until recent weeks.

"I see this project as seed corn," said Hueton. "We've got 21 acres of dirt out there and nothing has grown on it for a while."

Other anchors will be the Treehouse Museum, already under construction at the north end of the 21-acre site, and an 11-screen theater complex with restaurants that Jazz owner Larry H. Miller has verbally agreed to build.

Property Reserve Inc., the real estate arm of the LDS Church, has bought the two north corners of the project, on each side of the children's museum, and plans offices, shops and condominiums. Salt Lake City developer Dave Earnshaw plans a six-story building on the back side of the rec center that will have shops, offices and luxury condominiums.

The bonds will be repaid with property taxes from 10 previous redevelopment projects as well as from lease payments by Gold's Gym and Fat Cats. If those fail, lenders can get paid by tapping into the lease revenue from the Business Depot Ogden, which had been expected to pay for much-needed infrastructure needs in the city.

The council also approved selling $22 million in bonds, most of it to refinance the debt from buying the mall, demolishing it and paying off a legal settlement that resulted from demolition.

Opponent Wayne April said that is evidence the project is too big a risk. Originally, city officials said the mall would cost $10 million.

They are "going to be knocking at the door asking for more money. We've already got every single red cent this town can scrounge up going into this recreation center."

What's next

Ogden City will sell bonds to raise $16.2 million for the $18.5 million high adventure recreation center on Nov. 29. The city also will refinance $22 million in debt, most of it related to buying and destroying the old Ogden City Mall, where the rec center is to be built.

An agreement with the The Boyer Co. to develop the rest of the project must be signed. Among the tenants Boyer has lined up is an 11-screen theater and restaurant owned by Larry H. Miller.

A resolution of the offer by The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd to buy a larger piece of the development than the city wants to sell. The church wants to build a second, larger chapel.

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High Adventure

Recreation Center

The Redevelopment Agency (City Council) vote:

Yes: Fasi Filiaga, Kent Jorgenson, Rick Safsten, Brandon Stephenson, Donna Burdett

No: Amy Wicks, Jesse Garcia