As the city continues to patch the holes left with the Salt Lake Bees’ exit from Utah’s capital, the latest plans are out for remaking newly emptied Smith’s Ballpark.
This final draft of the ambitious Ballpark NEXT vision — detailed by city officials Tuesday in a series of informal chats at the vacant stadium — includes key ingredients that community members hope will bring a cascade of social and economic home runs for surrounding neighborhoods.
Chief among them: Creating a marquee entertainment venue in that central part of Salt Lake City, along with a host of other new gathering places — and lots of housing. Preserving some of the area’s baseball history. Bringing parts of nature back to life. Adding economic vitality.
In the making for almost three years, the city’s finalized 58-page plan and informal blueprint for the stadium site and adjacent city-owned land are now up for additional public input and a July 8 review by the city’s Community Reinvestment Agency.
(Salt Lake City Community Reinvestment Agency, via Perkins & Will) Rendering of a site map for Ballpark NEXT, Salt Lake City's latest vision for remaking Smith's Ballpark into a community asset with a new entertainment venue, fire station, housing, shared green spaces and other amenities.
This plan is the version that calls for repurposing a segment of the baseball stadium into a new entertainment venue as part of a 14.8-acre, mixed-use development spread over portions of two blocks at West Temple and 1300 South. Work could start as soon as early next year on adapting a chunk of the stadium, according to Mayor Erin Mendenhall.
With its goal of preserving the stadium entryway along with a portion of the stands, the adaptive reuse is also the project’s nod to preserving the area’s baseball past, which reaches back for generations.
“We’re in a good space to preserve this section of the stadium,” Mendenhall said Tuesday while looking over at the west side of the ballpark’s stands. “The steel structure is actually much more sound than we expected it to be when the engineering assessment was done.”
The mayor also touted the first of a series of a community events planned at the stadium, with a kid- and dog-friendly movie night starting at dusk on July 11 — as city officials press to keep the empty venue busy.
Filling gaps in Ballpark neighborhood
(Salt Lake City Community Reinvestment Agency) An aerial view of Smith's Ballpark. Salt Lake City has released its latest vision for remaking the stadium at 1300 South and West Temple into a community asset with a new entertainment venue, fire station, housing, shared green spaces and other amenities.
The city’s public investments in partnering with developers to transform the site are now aimed at making that partial structure and part of the field into a smaller, year-round entertainment spot.
A salvaged and revamped central portion of the stadium structure and a saved portion of the field would together span up to about 20,000 square feet. The multipurpose venue would offer up to 9,000 spectators large musical events and smaller community functions.
Requests for proposals from developers on that portion are expected to go out this year amid something of an upswing in regional investments in hospitality venues.
That process will unfold as the city moves on other phases. Those include building a new permanent public library and a new fire station, along with future phases for new multifamily homes for rent and sale, as well as creating multiuse green spaces and an infusion of retail outlets.
Development scenarios released in the latest plan call for up to 400 units of multifamily housing and 60 units for seniors, clustered in pockets east and west of the repurposed third of the stadium, with dwellings offered in future phases in a mix of subsidized and market-rate units.
(Salt Lake City Community Reinvestment Agency) Cover of Salt Lake City's latest plan for reusing Smith's Ballpark after the Bees left for South Jordan.
The scenario also envisions a 128-room hotel, spanning about 50,000 square feet, facing onto West Temple in conjunction with a stretch of that street converted for festival uses. There are two multistory parking garages included.
Many of the commercial spaces opened up in the redevelopment are to be kept more affordable for businesses.
Plans also call for the site to be more walkable and green, with tree-lined promenades, paths and sports fields. There will also be an area called Creek Park, an oasis that will replace parking lots with natural spaces featuring partially surfaced segments of Red Butte, Emigration, and Parleys creeks.
New shops, eateries and more
City Council member Darin Mano, whose District 5 spans the Ballpark area, said the newly released plan heralded a series of transformational changes, starting with the pending stadium overhaul.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Fans watch the Salt Lake Bees play at The Ballpark at America First Square in South Jordan on Friday, June 6, 2025.
Mano said the venue would have a busy schedule, bringing vibrancy and customers to surrounding commercial areas akin to Bees game days — only more frequently.
“But really, what I’m the most excited for is maybe the most simple and obvious thing: more restaurants and shops and commercial spaces to go to,” Mano said. “We have several really great restaurants in the Ballpark neighborhood, but they’re kind of spread and scattered throughout.”
This may sound familiar. It has been percolating through an array of public discussions since the Bees and other stadium users announced their departures for new digs in South Jordan’s Daybreak.
Mendenhall announced in January that a community selection process led to the choice for saving part of the stadium as a focal point for redevelopment.
