From hookers to headlines to hip, Salt Lake City block about to make news again
Deseret News Images
By TONY SEMERAD | The Salt Lake Tribune | First Published Apr 26 2015 08:24AM
A once-notorious Salt Lake City back street appears destined for some artistic respectability.
Right next to construction of the new performing-arts center and 111 Tower on Main Street, the city is launching a $12.8 million face-lift for Regent Street, Orpheum Avenue and a disused service alley off Main to be dubbed Regent Walk.
The renovation will transform what was once called Commercial Street — home to the city's red-light district, complete with brothels, taprooms, gambling halls and later, several newspapers — into the nexus of an emerging downtown arts district.
The project is meant as an appealing complement to the $110 million, 2,500-seat George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Theater, under construction at 135 S. Main St., while adding an inviting and walkable north-south corridor between the Gallivan Center and City Creek Center.
Initial work begins in May on converting the run-down midblock segments — tucked between Main and State streets and stretching from 100 South to 200 South — into an intersecting trio of tree-lined, pedestrian-friendly thoroughfares with retail shops, restaurants and a public plaza.
The aim is to have city upgrades, new public art and a series of city-subsidized improvements by private property owners in place when the Eccles playhouse opens in 2016.
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(more at the article, including four renderings...)
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