Date: August 9,
2005 Downtown all set for growth; Alliance report says area employment back to 2001 levels Paul Beebe The Salt Lake Tribune Salt Lake City's central business district is on the edge of another growth explosion, fueled by more than $1.5 billion in construction projects in the planning stages and a population surge that will almost double the number of people living downtown by 2010. That picture was delivered Monday by the Downtown Alliance, which unveiled details of its latest study -- a reality check of the 40-block area bounded by North Temple, 500 West, 400 South and 200 East. Downtown was hurt by gloomy economic conditions that took hold in 2001. Employment fell about 2 percent between 2001 and 2003. But in the last year, employers have added 1,500 jobs, and office employment has recovered to 2001 levels, the alliance said. Retail sales have rebounded since the late 1990s, despite a flight of retailers from Main Street, Crossroads Plaza and the ZCMI Center. Shoppers spent $493 million at downtown stores last year. Adjusted for inflation, that was 21 percent more than in 2000 and the most since 1996. "Generally, the economic situation downtown looks healthy and, I think, the future looks even brighter," said Bob Farrington, executive director of the alliance. Developers have responded to the improving economy with plans for at least 13 major office, retail and higher education construction projects to be built over the next five years, according to the alliance report. The construction will be unprecedented, eclipsing even the previous boom that ran from 1990 to the 2002 Winter Olympics and involved $1.4 billion in new projects, the report added. "There is no period in the [alliance's] history of equivalent investment activity in such a concentrated time frame," it said. The list includes more Gateway offices, fusing Crossroads and ZCMI malls into a single retail center, a combined campus for Brigham Young University's Salt Lake center and LDS Business College, the proposed Children's Museum and expansions of the Salt Palace and the Frank E. Moss Federal Courthouse. Ten housing developments have been built downtown since 2000, and developers are planning projects that should bring the area's population to about 10,000 -- an increase of two-thirds over the current number of residents. "That's a substantial prediction. Downtown would look very different," said Alison McFarlane, Mayor Rocky Anderson's senior adviser for economic development. "That's a good start on a big city." The study is the alliance's third look at downtown since 2001. Conducted by the Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Utah, the studies were started to give businesses, politicians and the public an unvarnished view of the area's health. "It seemed like people had their own impressions that did not always jibe with the facts, which indicate that the city's been growing at a healthy clip for the last 15 years," Farrington said.
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