While construction crews are reworking the inside of the Delta Center before tipoff and puck drop this fall, new blueprints are before planners at City Hall to give a corner of the building a new facade.
The city’s planning commission is weighing a development pact with new rules for constructing the 95-foot-tall addition of a 450-stall parking garage on the southwest corner of the arena, at about 301 W. South Temple. Initial work on the corner is already underway.
A new rendering of the proposed garage shows a dark steel, glass and concrete structure with perforated metal panels, built into that side of the arena.
It’s part of a multibillion-dollar plan by Smith Entertainment Group to remake a multi-block area including the Delta Center and Salt Palace Convention into a new downtown sports, entertainment, cultural and convention district. To anchor the development, the Delta Center’s interior will be reshaped to better serve the Utah Jazz’s basketball season and the city’s new NHL hockey team, the Utah Mammoth.
According to submitted documents, the city’s participation agreement approved last year with SEG to create the district — along with a supporting half-cent sales tax hike worth $1.2 billion over 30 years — did not set rules or terms for the building the proposed parking garage.
The garage, according to planners, would have about 448 parking stalls over seven stories, along with a below-grade loading dock for larger vehicles and a secured entrance.
Vehicles would access the garage along 400 West and 100 South, for what planners say would be “an enhanced user experience” for the remodeled stadium and improved functionality.
“The Delta Center does not currently provide any public parking on site,” planners note. “Patrons driving to the arena rely on the parking lots, structures and street parking in the area.”
The new development agreement would include a range of design modifications and waivers to what the city would otherwise require for the property’s downtown zoning, including exceptions to some of the its usual restrictions on parking garages.
City staffers are recommending approval of the development agreement proposed by SEG subsidiary Jazz Arena Investors, which is up for review Wednesday by the planning commission.
SEG has said the stadium renovations that are already underway are planned to take three summers to complete, but unknown factors may affect that timeline.