Damn, Shit, and that is whack. There are some rather interesting coversations goin on in here lately.
maybe this will spark some more pleasing conversations again....hint hint....
Holladay gives go-ahead to Cottonwood Mall renewal
HOLLADAY - City officials in this eastern Salt Lake Valley suburb gave final approval tonight to an urban-renewal plan aimed at transforming the Cottonwood Mall.
General Growth Properties Inc., the mall owner, plans to spend $550 million to turn the shuttered shopping center - only Macy's remains open during construction - into a high-end, mixed-use village. The project includes 700,000 square feet of retail space, 100,000 square feet of offices and 534 lofts, condos and single-family homes.
Tonight, the Holladay City Council, acting as the city's Redevelopment Agency Board, finalized a plan to use $96 million of new property taxes created by the development to offset infrastructure costs, such as roads, sidewalks and a rerouting of Big Cottonwood Creek.
"We've been looking forward to [creating this urban-renewal area] for a long time," said City Councilman Grant Orton, chairman of Holladay's RDA Board. "It means the continued economic viability of what used to be the mall [and] the revitalization of the whole area."
Holladay, along with other taxing entities such as the Granite School District, agreed to forfeit 75 percent of the new property taxes that will be generated by the mixed-use project for 20 years. Holladay also has pledged 75 percent of its point-of-sale tax revenues within the Cottonwood Mall urban-renewal area
during the same time period.
Kathy Olson, General Growth's senior development director, said the public funding is "absolutely critical" to remake the 1960s-era Cottonwood Mall.
"It enables General Growth to invest half-a-billion dollars in the Holladay economy, which will increase the amount of tax revenues that the city gets just exponentially," she said.
The company plans to start work this spring and complete the overhaul in October 2010.
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_8201668