Salt Lake City: Official Development News Thread - Part 4

[ajiuO]

I really hope the don't use green seats again... a new color would help to show some sort of change has happened.

[Comrade]

Originally Posted by arkhitektor

True, but I still think we're lucky because the Millers could have easily just sold the team to new owners or demanded that we build a new publicly funded arena at Thanksgiving Point under threat of moving the team to Seattle. All things considered, I think a $100 million private investment in the Vivint is more than we could have expected anyway.

I'm fortunate for Gail Miller. I don't trust anyone else from the Miller Family to keep the Jazz in Utah once she's gone, though.

[Comrade]

Originally Posted by TheWire

To be fair, Vivint Arena is considered to be world class in this respect. The angle of the bowl allows more verticality than most arenas in the country, particularly in the NBA. This allows fans to be "on top of the action" and much closer to the athletes. Opposing NBA teams frequently talk about this and how much it gives a home court advantage to the Jazz.

It's a very good basketball arena in its design, no question about it.

It's awful for hockey, figure skating and not so good for concerts for this reason, also. But since the Jazz are the primary tenant, I guess that's not such a bad thing.

But it also hurt hockey in SLC, as it was a mess of a hockey arena (no surprise, since Miller quickly sold the Golden Eagles despite promising not to after he purchased 'em) and that led to the building of the E Center out in WVC, which still kinda 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵.

[arkhitektor]

Does the Miller Group own the arena and the land under it, or is the land leased?

[Hatman]

Originally Posted by Liberty Wellsian

lift the ice?

My thoughts too. These aren't unsolvable problems. They're just problems that weren't fully addressed due to ________________. (Choices: time, money, politics, willpower, lack of foresight, lack of public outreach, Illuminati, government conspiracy, LDS-owned state legislature, Obama, ect...)

[RonnyRAGE]

Originally Posted by arkhitektor

I was just pointing out the arena's shortcomings as a skating rink, which aren't really important because it isn't a skating rink 99% of the time. It will be a fantastic place to watch a basketball game, and we should be greatful the Millers are making the improvements and paying for it themselves. It would make no sense for them to spend hundreds of millions more to rebuild the entire seating bowl to better accommodate a skating rink on the 1 in 1,000 chance that Salt Lake hosts the Olympics again in 10 years.

My post was about the NHL expansion. Hosting the Olympics again would be awesome but the chances aren't great. Yes we have the Maverick Center in West Valley City. but it's in West Valley City. We had the Utah Blaze but the field was the same size as a Hockey Rink. Neither work well with the current & future layout.

[UTPlanner]

The SLC RDA owns the property underneath the arena and the Miller family owns the actual building. I have always thought the arena was a nice looking building and I think the upgrades will be great. Unfortunately, in the era of billion dollar stadiums, 100 million dollars just doesn't go that far anymore. I think they're doing great things with a limited budget. I have heard that they are going to do some upgrades adjacent to the TRAX station as well so that after games they can close east bound South Temple and the train doors will be able to let people in and out from both sides of the train.

[TheWire]

I don't understand why so many people are upset with not having a complete overhaul of the exterior of the arena. It's a well designed building. Short of completely demolishing it, doing more than they did would look so tacky. It was ahead of its time with the extensive use of glass and it has held up extremely well. I still rank the third best looking arena in the NBA. I do understand the desire for more involvement with Gateway and a more functional outdoor plaza. That being said, I think that the use of the northeast corner with the staging area will present some really cool opportunities for public events. Top to bottom, I really think this was a smart use of funds and will really go a long way to improving what needed to be improved and keeping what was already working well. Im excited.

[Future Mayor]

Originally Posted by Makid

I heard something today on the radio and I think it is the first time it has been said.

When referencing both 111 and the UPAC, they mentioned the Theater's full name and in referencing 111, they called it the "Goldman Sacs Tower".

Has anyone else heard anything about this?

I am wondering if this is the official name of the building or just something similar to people calling One Utah Center, the Chase Building.

My guess is that it is being called that because they are the anchor tenant, until there name is on the drown I will call in the 111 building. Unlike One Utah Center which actually does have Chase on the crown. I think us old timers will always call it the One Utah, but I understand why others call it the Chase tower, since the name is on the top.

The potential for 4,000 employees in that building is such a huge boast for the vibrancy of downtown. Yes I realize that most of that will be daytime population but many will stick around for other events downtown, add in 2,500 people at the EPAC 250-300 nights a year and you've just created a huge boast in evening/night time vibrancy. Considering may of the the Goldman employees are transplants, and I'm assuming they will continue to bring more in, a large percentage of them like the downtown lifestyle and will demand more housing within the city, which we all know is popping up everywhere The fact that the Tribune article stated that 111 is already 80% leased, I expect 151 to break ground in the next year. Downtown Salt Lake City IMO, is truly on the cusp of a massive growth spurt.

[DCRes]

Assuming that they get another 25 years out of the arena with these renovations, it will by far be the oldest arena in the NBA other than Madison Square Garden, and I think that is a good thing. It will never be as iconic as Fenway Park or Wrigley field, but having gone to games a the arena starting in '93, I have a fondness for the building and would be sad to see it go or lose too much of it's current character.

[airportvids]

my video of 111 south main

• Video Link

[ToysNoiz]

Cool video Airportvids, thanks for sharing!

[delts145]

Great video, truly a stunning street engagement.

[Marvland]

Originally Posted by airportvids

my video of 111 south main

• Video Link

Thanks for sharing Airport. Amazing project and one that will change downtown, especially once Regent St. gets cooking and they start working on real programming for Gallivan, which has completely changed with Pulp & Good Grammar opening this year. So now we're talking about a truly walk-able urban amenity district running in a circle from City Creek to Regent, to the 300 S. bar district out to 300 E. and the 2nd south strip (Bar X, Beer Bar Johnny's and Taqueria 27).

However, Airport, I think you misidentified your species of mushroom.

[Marvland]

We all love to 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 about our lack of tower building in the downtown area, but the fact remains that we are setting our market up for success with all of the constant infrastructure improvement, again that we all love to 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 about. Most striking thing from this article is that "Utah spends about $660 million a year on highway projects to expand capacity, while Colorado spends $159 million." The Front Range is the biggest, most disastrous and disjointed modern metro in the country from a planning perspective. And I say that as a real Denver enthusiast.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/4390066-155/colorado-envies-utahs-transportation-system-seeks?fullpage=1

[s.p.hansen]

Originally Posted by Marvland

We all love to 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 about our lack of tower building in the downtown area, but the fact remains that we are setting our market up for success with all of the constant infrastructure improvement, again that we all love to 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 about. Most striking thing from this article is that "Utah spends about $660 million a year on highway projects to expand capacity, while Colorado spends $159 million." The Front Range is the biggest, most disastrous and disjointed modern metro in the country from a planning perspective. And I say that as a real Denver enthusiast.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/4390066-155/colorado-envies-utahs-transportation-system-seeks?fullpage=1

I really didn't like that title or the style of that article. The FrontRange is a very succeedsful metro; we have a lot we can learn from them and they can learn some things for us. It would have been interesting if they actually talked about the exchange of ideas process instead of "Our Korea is the best Korea" title and theme. Let's be real guys; I wouldn't change our level of spending on roads, but it's crazy disproportionate to what we spend on transit. Denver is rapidly filling their core with buildings and apartments, Salt Lake City is moving comparably much slower yet our rate of growth is almost identical. I hope we took some notes from them on that.

The FrontRange is getting fucked by TABOR and you're seeing property values rapidly increase much faster than the level of amenities there. Once they can start taxing people there again with the same flexibility as Utah, I'm sure their credit rating will catch up to Utah as will their freeways.

I like our awesome roads, but I think it's kinda sad that that was the reason to investigate urban development policy in Utah.

And I get that I'm being negative and that we shared our legitimately excellent strategies for getting the public in the process of budgeting and planning infrastructure, but since Frontlines 2015, I don't think we've raised our vision much from freeways for days and more buses and maybe some BRTs. Outside of hoping that the Federal Government will pay for 80% of a short streetcar line, we've lost our mojo with rail.

[ThePusherMan]

Originally Posted by airportvids

my video of 111 south main

• Video Link

I am super happy with the way this big screen turned out. They must have commissioned some custom animation for it. I expressed earlier my distaste for the waterfall screen that had been posted a couple of times. I think that our animations are much better. There is one that flies you through outer space and it was blowing my mind when I watched it and I hadn't even had any of Airportvids' "shiitake" mushrooms.

[Marvland]

Originally Posted by s.p.hansen

I really didn't like that title or the style of that article. The FrontRange is a very succeedsful metro; we have a lot we can learn from them and they can learn some things for us. It would have been interesting if they actually talked about the exchange of ideas process instead of "Our Korea is the best Korea" title and theme. Let's be real guys; I wouldn't change our level of spending on roads, but it's crazy disproportionate to what we spend on transit. Denver is rapidly filling their core with buildings and apartments, Salt Lake City is moving comparably much slower yet our rate of growth is almost identical. I hope we took some notes from them on that.

The FrontRange is getting fucked by TABOR and you're seeing property values rapidly increase much faster than the level of amenities there. Once they can start taxing people there again with the same flexibility as Utah, I'm sure their credit rating will catch up to Utah as will their freeways.

I like our awesome roads, but I think it's kinda sad that that was the reason to investigate urban development policy in Utah.

And I get that I'm being negative and that we shared our legitimately excellent strategies for getting the public in the process of budgeting and planning infrastructure, but since Frontlines 2015, I don't think we've raised our vision much from freeways for days and more buses and maybe some BRTs. Outside of hoping that the Federal Government will pay for 80% of a short streetcar line, we've lost our mojo with rail.

I agree on Denver doing great things in its core. That's why I love that city. But get out of the core and it's a friggin mess. Period. Across our market, amazing things are happening, construction is INSANE. I truly don't know if many who read this page understand what's happening. We don't have the towers downtown yet because we are still largely in an infill stage. But we have almost 3 million square feet of office, 3 million sf of industrial under construction with a one year apartment delivery that equals the last five years in Denver with 12,000 units (read that number again) in the soft pipeline. The change is happening right under our noses.

[Marvland]

And finally, the hotel constipation releases: Marriott just bought Starwood. This, without a doubt, affects the landscape of the CCH and Regent. This was the deal that had clogged up deals across the country. Things will now settle down and deals will (HOPEFULLY) get done.

EDIT: Also want to point out that Starwood owns St Regis and DDRM built the St Regis in PC.

[delts145]

Very much agree Marvland about Marriott/Starwood. This is what I've been waiting for.