Salt Lake City: Official Development News Thread - Part 5

[nushiof]

Demolition has begun at 255 State.

https://kutv.com/news/local/demoliti...n-in-the-works

[DCRes]

Originally Posted by nushiof

Demolition has begun at 255 State.

https://kutv.com/news/local/demoliti...n-in-the-works

I just looked out the window and saw a back-hoe working over there. Great to finally see some kind of movement happening there

[IMG] by , on Flickr[/IMG]

[Comrade]

Such a waste. A waste of work. A waste of supplies. A waste of time. A waste of opportunity. I really loved the idea of the REX Theater addition to this project. Sigh.

[delts145]

Finally, and apparently it's not going to take much time to get rid of the skeletal structure. It would be great to have the replacement residential tower going up around the same time as Liberty Sky.

Who made that flawed steel anyway?

[StevenF]

Originally Posted by DCRes

I just looked out the window and saw a back-hoe working over there. Great to finally see some kind of movement happening there

[IMG] by , on Flickr[/IMG]

Originally Posted by nushiof

Demolition has begun at 255 State.

https://kutv.com/news/local/demoliti...n-in-the-works

What about all that public art?

[brankrom]

I really liked the idea of the Rex theater facade on the LaPorte project and doing urbex in that site was really fun. climbing to the top of the concrete forms and exploring the parking garage was effing awesome. Excited for whats coming but had some fun in exploring that project.

[jubguy3]

Originally Posted by delts145

Finally, and apparently it's not going to take much time to get rid of the skeletal structure. It would be great to have the replacement residential tower going up around the same time as Liberty Sky.

Who made that flawed steel anyway?

China

[EPdesign]

News article today about the 67 block project in the SLTrib. I’m too sick and lazy to copy and paste.

[delts145]

Originally Posted by jubguy3

China

Thought so.

[Orlando]

Originally Posted by EPdesign

News article today about the 67 block project in the SLTrib. I’m too sick and lazy to copy and paste.

https://www.sltrib.com/news/2018/12/...uge-salt-lake/


I think Ritchie needs to show the money that they can do this, by starting the first building of the project on 300 West. The city may be out $15 million without anything to show if they go ahead on the premise that they are going to do all those highrises. Ritchie has never done this and we've seen this all to common. I applaud the effort, but I think they need to put their shovel into the ground first before the city helps them build the garage.

[taboubak]

I am all for perserving cultural areas and histroic buildings but Japantown is long dead. It was killed by the Salt Palace. Japantown should play no part in stopping the development of Block 67. They aren't destroying any structures and the churches will remain fully intact.

[Pencil]

No one even knows about “Japantown” I only found out it existed because of this project but even then it’s not much of a town. If this gets built Japantown is still going to be there and if anything a lot of people are going to find out it’s exists and go to the street since now they have a reason to be on that street because of Block 67 but this is just my opinion.

[Makid]

Originally Posted by taboubak

I am all for perserving cultural areas and histroic buildings but Japantown is long dead. It was killed by the Salt Palace. Japantown should play no part in stopping the development of Block 67. They aren't destroying any structures and the churches will remain fully intact.

Other than Royal Wood Plaza, no buildings are set to be removed. In fact, an empty parking lot would be developed.

My main issue with the delays on this project are that if enough people get together, they can work to force a developer to pay homage to something that was demolished decades before the project was conceived.

Should APS include an homage to the strip clubs, a radio station, or a dance club? How about Regent Street and the Red Light District in the past. If this is the new case, if a development replaces a parking garage, when the development is replaced in the future, should it show respect to the previous parking garage?

Here with Japantown, there are 2 buildings left, the Temple and the Church. Each on opposite sides of the street and different ends of the 1st South block. The senior housing, Salt Palace and a parking lot are basically the rest of the street.

The first phase of the project was already approved but the RDA and City Council decided to require the developer to change the plans for the first and second phases to include updates for Japantown during the zoning adjustment request for Phase 2 of the project.

If the developer had started construction on phase 1, would they have been required to halt development until things were changed to incorporate adjustments to Japantown?

[bob rulz]

Tower 8, 151 State, and 255 State all likely being under construction at the same time

[Marvland]

Originally Posted by Orlando

https://www.sltrib.com/news/2018/12/...uge-salt-lake/


I think Ritchie needs to show the money that they can do this, by starting the first building of the project on West Temple. The city may be out $15 million without anything to show if they go ahead on the premise that they are going to do all those highrises. Ritchie has never done this and we've seen this all to common. I applaud the effort, but I think they need to put their shovel into the ground first before the city helps them build the garage.

It's a CRA/TIF deal. Typically the structure is something like this: it gets built by the developer and the developer gets reimbursed through future tax increment created by the development over and above the current as-is tax base. The risk is initially on the developers as TIF isn't available until after the end of year one of the TIF year, ie, reimbursement begins at beginning of Y2 after C of O. It still needs to be financed, built and guaranteed, bonded etc. They don't collect the payback until the project is generating the tax revenue. Nifty setup actually and it incentives completion. Now if they had asked for a forgivable RDA loan or something that would be a different story.

I think they should explore closing that stretch (or a portion thereof) of 100 S. Turn it into a cool park and outdoor amenity. I rarely see cars on that stretch as it was effectively lopped off when they built the convention center.

[Marvland]

Originally Posted by Comrade

Such a waste. A waste of work. A waste of supplies. A waste of time. A waste of opportunity. I really loved the idea of the REX Theater addition to this project. Sigh.

I am so grateful that project failed. It was a disaster from the get-go. Run by a con-man and the design was terrible and icky.

[Orlando]

Originally Posted by Marvland

It's a CRA/TIF deal. Typically the structure is something like this: it gets built by the developer and the developer gets reimbursed through future tax increment created by the development over and above the current as-is tax base. The risk is initially on the developers as TIF isn't available until after the end of year one of the TIF year, ie, reimbursement begins at beginning of Y2 after C of O. It still needs to be financed, built and guaranteed, bonded etc. They don't collect the payback until the project is generating the tax revenue. Nifty setup actually and it incentives completion. Now if they had asked for a forgivable RDA loan or something that would be a different story.

I think they should explore closing that stretch (or a portion thereof) of 100 S. Turn it into a cool park and outdoor amenity. I rarely see cars on that stretch as it was effectively lopped off when they built the convention center.

That's a cool idea.

[ThePusherMan]

Originally Posted by Marvland

I am so grateful that project failed. It was a disaster from the get-go. Run by a con-man and the design was terrible and icky.

This right here ^^^ Don't blame bad steel for that project dying. My buddy worked for the architecture firm that tried to clean up that mess of a building. Basically La Port not only had no idea what they were doing but there was also some embezzling and crooked stuff going on. A lot of sub contractors lost their livelihoods on that project and La Port just got a slap on the wrist. People should be in jail but I think part of it was that the city didn't want to admit what a royal Fxxx up the project was. Scandal gets swept under the rug. City looses a bunch of money. We have a eyesore downtown for a couple of years and finally we are back to square one.

[Comrade]

I never want a project to fail once it's started construction. That's just stupid. We wasted years with a blighted, ugly steel mess in the heart of our downtown because this project failed. We demolished some historic buildings that, while not really attractive, were still livable and offered at least something, for a hole that sat vacant for years because this project failed.

Tax payer dollars were lost because this project failed.

The point of wanting it to fail was long gone by the time this project actually failed. Its failure shouldn't be cheered. Just hope that whatever comes next actually gets built in a timely manner because we've already lost out on so much on that site already because this project failed.

[SLCLvr]

Originally Posted by Pencil

No one even knows about “Japantown” I only found out it existed because of this project.

Exactly, Japantown was killed in the 1960s before probably most of you were born. A temple and a church do not make a town. There are plenty of examples of churches and Buddhist temples existing just fine in urban areas. Phase one adjacent to "Japantown" follows existing zoning. There is leverage because of the use of public funds for the parking garage (which I assume will be partially used by Vivint Arena goers) and it makes sense to me to replace surface parking that will be beautifully developed with structured parking. Also leverage because of the request for the rezone to gain additional height for Phase 2 although Phase 2 is separated from "Japantown" by the multicultural high-rise and the historic house that I think is an antiques shop or something. Phase 2 will also be separated by a proposed linear Japanese garden south of these two existing structures. 100 South AKA Japantown Street will still exist so I assume the annual Japanese festival can still be held on it.