Salt Lake City has long hoped a new USA Climbing National Training Center will be a development catalyst as the centerpiece to transforming the Rio Grande District west of downtown.
Those dreams have started taking new shape — and Olympic fans, your attention please:
With city approval last week of designs for the futuristic, three-story headquarters at 500 West and 300 South, competitive climbing’s U.S. governing body says it wants to wrap construction in time for athletes to train there for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
“It’s going to be a challenge,” USA Climbing spokesperson Steve Brown told city officials, “but we’re trying to commit to do that for them.”
(USA Climbing/VCBO) Rendering of the interior of the USA Climbing National Training Center proposed for the southwest corner of 300 South and 500 West in Salt Lake City.
Along with its extensive training facilities, national sports offices and copious state-of-the-art climbing walls, the new L-shaped building slated to go up near the Rio Grande Depot is being designed with a substantial public plaza-turned-viewing party venue as its front yard.
The center is to span a total of 99,616 square feet over three levels. That will include competition spaces and training for youth, collegiate, para and elite competitors as well as administrative offices for the national sporting group, which is sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee and the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee.
“We’re excited to present this vibrant, unique Olympic flag facility to the city,” Brown said. “We think it’s going to be really cool. I love the architecture. I love the design.”
The new facility is expected to draw 400,000 visitors yearly, according to USA Climbing’s website.
New Olympic sport, with a big audience
(Salt Lake City) Location of the proposed USA Climbing National Training Center in Salt Lake City.
Newly approved building designs feature angular exterior surfaces and perforated metal panels, as well as vaulting interior spaces and long exterior walls to accommodate tall, competition-standard climbing walls and specialized training facilities.
The sports body says the center will eventually host large-scale events and competitions in sport climbing, which made its Olympic debut at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games, held in 2021.
Salt Lake City has hosted several World Cup events in the sport since 2022, drawing thousands.
The overall popularity of climbing also has mushroomed in recent years, nationally and in Utah. Salt Lake City’s access to world-class climbing areas in the Wasatch Mountains have made this all a natural fit.
(Salt Lake City) A map and rendering of features of Salt Lake City's proposed Rio Grande District.
USA Climbing relocated its headquarters to Utah’s capital from Boulder, Colorado, in 2018, with an eye toward finding a permanent training site. The Utah Legislature chipped in $15 million to support the new building during its 2023 session.
And as the USA Climbing center plans came into sharper focus last week with design review by City Hall, officials voiced their own burgeoning enthusiasm for getting the building off the ground.
“I hope everything falls into place,” city planning commissioner Aimee Burrows told USA Climbing organizers as the commission unanimously approved the plans last week. “It’ll be great for Salt Lake City.”
Initial designs for the center got OK’d Wednesday, with several waivers to city code on elements such as the building’s height, setbacks and long, blank exterior walls. The project has also been exempted from having to build housing as part of the facility, which is the usual rule for development along 500 West in that area.
What to do with a 119-year-old building
(Salt Lake City) The historic Salt Lake Mattress Co. building at 535 W. 300 South in Salt Lake City. Original city plans called for incorporating the aging building into the USA Climbing headquarters and training facility, to be located at approximately 500 West and 300 South.
The 2.16-acre parcel that would host the proposed headquarters, located at 502 W. 300 South, is owned by the city’s Community Reinvestment Agency, which approved a ground lease for the site in 2024.
In addition to requiring the public plaza, those original deal terms called for the training center to incorporate into its headquarters a renovated version of the historic Salt Lake Mattress Co. building next door.
The city bought the 119-year-old brick building in 2002 with a view to preserving it, back when that whole blighted neighborhood was referred to Station Center.
USA Climbing’s latest draft designs, created by VCBO Architecture in Salt Lake City, do feature the former turn-of-the-century mattress and bedding factory, linked into the second floor of the new building and intended to house a cafe and retail outlets.
(Salt Lake City Community Reinvestment Agency) The 119-year-old Salt Lake Mattress Co. faces several challenges as officials seek to overhaul it as part of a new USA Climbing National Training Center in the city's Rio Grande District.
But there’s a hitch.
After taking a big shake in the Magna earthquake in 2020, the Salt Lake Mattress Co. building is all but falling apart, if not for a series of wooden shoring beams and buttressing frames now holding it together.
Additional study by USA Climbing revealed that large portions of the historic brick are unstable and need to be removed and reappointed, along with adding reinforcement to make the building structurally safe during construction, according to city documents.
The city’s original financial plan set aside $6 million to reimburse USA Climbing for rehabilitating the building, but the sports group now says a reconstruction will cost $6.25 million, while fully adapting and reusing it would come in at $7.3 million or more.
(USA Climbing/VCBO Architecture) Rendering of the proposed link between the new USA Climbing National Training Center proposed for Salt Lake City and the historic Salt Lake Mattress Co. building next door.
USA Climbing says it can’t absorb those added costs and has turned back to the city for additional money, with an ask of between $250,000 and $1.3 million. The City Council, though, has delayed in agreeing to spend more while it explores which option might be most cost effective.
Council member Sarah Young said while added funding is possible, “this isn’t an open line of credit. This is like a one-time, help you out. If we can’t sustain that, then we just need to look for a different opportunity.”