Salt Lake:Official development news thread

[jmonkey]

Thanks for that update, Terryaki. I was just wondering what was happening with the on-hold plans for the SLC Int'l Airport. Would be nice to get that done, especially to go along with our first European flight, and extended TRAX service to it's doorstep. But isn't it about time that Utahn's received another small, insubstanstial, and completely symbolic tax cut instead???? Who cares about projects that might improve the state!!

It is past time to get moving on the airport. It is dingy, dated, and crowded. There is nothing like the experience of waiting with the passengers of seven or so other flights for your baggage to show up. And for flying into such a majestic setting, the airport does NOTHING to highlight the view of the mountains and city you are arriving at. Plus, do you think Delta is ready to pay more fees? I'd wait to do that until they are out of bankruptcy protection.

[Viperlord]

[Schmoe]

Thanks for all the parking information and the warm welcome to the forum! I look forward to catching up on the projects in the city and participating more!

[SmilingBob]

Originally Posted by jmonkey

Thanks for that update, Terryaki. I was just wondering what was happening with the on-hold plans for the SLC Int'l Airport. Would be nice to get that done, especially to go along with our first European flight, and extended TRAX service to it's doorstep. But isn't it about time that Utahn's received another small, insubstanstial, and completely symbolic tax cut instead???? Who cares about projects that might improve the state!!

It is past time to get moving on the airport. It is dingy, dated, and crowded. There is nothing like the experience of waiting with the passengers of seven or so other flights for your baggage to show up. And for flying into such a majestic setting, the airport does NOTHING to highlight the view of the mountains and city you are arriving at. Plus, do you think Delta is ready to pay more fees? I'd wait to do that until they are out of bankruptcy protection.

Fast Facts about the airport:

An Overview of Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC)

• American, Atlantic Southeast, Continental, Continental Express, Delta, Frontier, JetBlue, Mesa, Northwest, Shuttle America, SkyWest, Southwest, United Airlines, United Express, US Airways Express, US Airways operate from Salt Lake City International Airport. Visit our web page at slcairport.com for a flight guide.
• Consistently, it is Delta Air Lines' second largest hub. Along with commuter partners, SkyWest, Shuttle America and Atlantic Southeast, they operate around 247 scheduled daily departures.
• Salt Lake City International Airport is the largest hub in the Western United States.
• The airport is situated within a two and a half-hour flight from half of the United State's population.
• The airport served 22.2 million passengers in 2005, the highest level in its history.
• There is non-stop service to all of Salt Lake City's top fifty markets.
• In 2005, the airport was ranked first in the United States for on-time departures and second for on-time arrivals.
• In 2005, the facility was ranked 25th busiest in the United States and 50th busiest in the world.
• There are over 800 scheduled daily flights from the facility serving more than 100 cities with non-stop flights.
• Over 73,000 daily airplane seats are available through SLC.
• The airport complex is made up of two terminals, five concourses and 80 gates.
• The airport is located within 60 miles of 11 world-class ski resorts.
• Convenient access to five national and 46 state parks.
• Gateway to 100 golf courses statewide, 24 in Salt Lake County and 25 more within an hour's drive. Alpine courses in the nearby Wasatch Mountains are world famous. Wingpointe Golf Course, an 18-hole course set into the natural environment, is conveniently located adjacent to Salt Lake City International Airport.

The question in my mind isn't does the airport need updating, it's how fast and how much do we want to spend. Frankly I'm a bit tired of the constant construction out there. I would rather see us do a big remodel and be done for a decade or so. It is a risk, but the airport is run more like a business with it's own revenue source. For the most part the airport covers it's own costs with asking for much in the way of tax dollars.

It's a much better return on our tax money than UTA.

The airport will continue to grow and need to be upgraded. Look at it from a business perspective. What are the costs and what are the expected returns both financially and the extended returns from state-wide business growth.

[SmilingBob]

Originally Posted by delts145

leebuddy,

In going over your recent post regarding UVSC and the development down there, it got me stoked for the thread for Utah Valley. Any of you guys and gals,(WASATCH ONE) have some more pics of UVSC to post on the new thread?

p.s. Looking out my window now at the Wasatch. NEW DUSTING OF SNOW!!!
Man, I can't wait to hit that incredible new tunnel at the BIRD.

Campus Shot


McKay Events Center


Or you can tour the campus buildings at: http://resource.uvsc.edu/tour/wb.html

I'm not a fan of the building at UVSC. Too much concrete.

[Viperlord]

Trax to the airport would be sweet!!!

[Joe Gardner]

Originally Posted by Viperlord

Trax to the airport would be sweet!!!

This *needs* to happen. A quick line that connects the intermodal hub to the airport should be the #1 trax priority. Add a downtown circular that connects the hub with all the downtown hotels, and SLC is set.

[Schmoe]

Anyone know if The Hotel has a website? I'm trying to get info on private parties without actually calling. Thanks.

[pinyon]

Originally Posted by Joe Gardner

This *needs* to happen. A quick line that connects the intermodal hub to the airport should be the #1 trax priority. Add a downtown circular that connects the hub with all the downtown hotels, and SLC is set.

Unfortunately, as per the Trib this morning we aren't going to have any idea as to what the proposed sales tax increase will fund. The state legislature is playing games and SL County might be obligated to connect Utah County commuter rail as part of the overall picture. You're right thought, the intermodal hub to airport trax should be the absolute #1 priority. Sadly, the circular downtown route probably will be a long long ways down the road. If Draper gets dropped from the 2014 round then my guess is that a downtown loop still stands behind Draper. Can you say 2030?

[jedikermit]

Originally Posted by Joe Gardner

This *needs* to happen. A quick line that connects the intermodal hub to the airport should be the #1 trax priority.

YES. That should have taken priority above any other expansion.

[jmonkey]

Totally agree^^
An airport TRAX line should be first up, if only to make things easier for tourists and business people. I would use it too.

[leebuddy]

I wish the airport would just get it's trax line built all ready. then i could just take trax to work each day insteed of driving.

This project needs to happen and i mean now. LOL

[Viperlord]

Trax will happen sooner or later to the airport. I would hope soon. Imagine the development that might happen along north temple.

[delts145]

Scott Beck, president of the Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau, said representatives of three prospective conventions were in Salt Lake during this summer's OR to see how well the city accommodates Outdoor Retailer's 20,000 attendees.

"When you see the amount of exhibitors that were here and then how the city flows and how it works, it's amazing."

Plenty of room to play,

Salt Lake City's biggest convention is ready to grow even more.

With a newly expanded Salt Palace convention center, Outdoor retailer is attracting, more people, more exhibitors and more attention.

In fact, the show, which ranks as the 52nd biggest convention in the United States, opened on Thursday with 967 exhibiting companies, a 12 percent increase over 861 companies featured in the previous summer of 2005.

Now with 145,000 square feet of added exhibition space, Outdoor retailer can easily accommodate the 4,005 booths on display. And that's the first time the 4,000 mark has been reached in the convention's 25-year history, a 15 percent increase over 3,480 booths last year, according to Lori Jenks, group operations director for VNU Expositions In,., a Virginia-based company that owns and manages OR.

"We're very proud that Salt Lake has really pulled together and built an expansion for us in less than 22 months," Jenks said. "This is our biggest show in the sports group portfolio."

And the show will help to draw other conventions to Salt Lake City.

Since the expansion was first announced, Rotary International, the Endocrine Society, the American Cancer Research Society and the Natioal Association of Research Librarians have agreed to make The Salt Palace the site of future conventions.

Beck said none of those organizations could have come to Salt Lake without the $58 million expansion, which was completed in July.

For Outdoor Retailer, more space means Salt Lake City willl continue to be home for years to come. On Thursday, Frank Hugelmeyer, chief executive of the Colorado-based Outdoor Industry Association, announced that the asssociation would recommend that OR remain in Salt Lake City through 2010.

In 2004, the twice-yearly show announced it would stay in Salt Lake through2009 - contingent on the expansion of The Salt Palace and a state commitment to protecting recreational areas.

"We love this city," Hugelmeyer said. "We love this state. It has a cultural fit to our industry. It has the best convention center, closest to the best recreation."

Beck said the expanded Salt Palace has led to $262 million in future economic impact, based on an average convention delegate spending $854.

Allyson Jackson, general manager of The Palace convention center, said the OR summer show feeds $32 million into Salt Lake's economy.

"Because that is such a high number, they are able to use our facility for no charge," Jackson said. "The impact to our hotels, rental cars and restarurants, that more than makes up what we would get in revenue as far as rent because it is such a huge show to the community."

[delts145]

deseretnews
Business

The apartment vacancy rate for the greater Salt Lake area for the three months ended June 30 fell to 5.3 percent, down from 6.5 percent in the same quarter in 2005, according to a report by Hendricks & partners.

Salt Lake's apartment vacancy rate was lower than that of Colorado Springs, Colo., which reported a 10.3 percent vacancy rate. Denver ended the second quarter at 6.9 percent.

The report noted that the Salt Lake area saw aparment absorption totaling nearly 3,800 units over the past 12 months, with apartment completions totaling 800 units.

Average rents for all apartment types in the Salt Lake area in the 12 months ended June 30 climbed to $669, up 2.9 percent from $650 compared to the same 12-month period a year earlier.

[jmonkey]

ahhhh!! We 'heart' you too, OR!!! BFF!!

I seriously do enjoy the two weekends a year they are here--the city has a different feel those weekends. I'm glad they're staying, glad we're giving them free rent even, and I hope we grow into a much, much better host city for the Outdoor Retailers over the next five years. They'll never want to leave!!

[jmonkey]

Editorial in today's Trib:

Give our musicians venues and watch downtown thrive
Jeff Whiteley
Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated:10/14/2006 12:03:28 PM MDT

As Salt Lake City plans for the future, smaller music venues - 200- to 300-seat upscale performance spaces showcasing the area's best local musicians - would help invigorate downtown.
The world-class musicians are here. We host a steady stream of visitors year-'round. Let's put the area's finest musicians downtown where the hotel guests can find them, turn on the spotlights and, to borrow a phrase from Michel Legrand, "watch what happens."
Why not consider downtown something like a music mall? We have the anchor tenants: the Utah Symphony and the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra on Temple Square. Missing are the boutiques, the smaller, more intimate spaces. We don't have celebrity, but we have excellence.
Put excellence where people can find it. This will require vision and venues. We need to plan now for the spaces and venues.
Vieve Gore Hall at Westminster College is a good example of what I envision: 280 seats, a beautiful stage, a grand piano, sound and lighting systems. But it is not downtown.
Nevertheless, the nonprofit group, Excellence in the Community, is proving the validity of this argument in this hall one concert at a time. The group was founded to close the experiential gap between what our top musicians know is possible and what their fellow citizens imagine. World class talent? I hope doubters say: Prove it.
The area's best musicians are a world-class resource. A common response to our events is amazement. People comment on their expectations being dramatically exceeded. They also mention their surprise that they could live in the area and be unaware of the depth of the local talent.
The French have an expression, "The presentation is half of the taste." Reformulated for this discussion, architecture sets the expectations. We have world-class musical talent, not diamonds in the rough, but polished jewels all along the Wasatch Front. Take them out of the sock drawer. Put them in settings worthy of their talent, turn on the lights and downtown will sparkle.
For example: The Salt Lake Jazz Orchestra is a world-class big band, dazzling not only locals but the big names they back up at the Salt Lake International Jazz festival. It would be nice to hear them more than once or twice a year. Synthesis Big Band just returned from a successful European tour. It would nice to hear them more than once or twice a year. Two world-class big bands, all dressed up, well rehearsed with nowhere to go.
But not just big band. Sophisticated jazz, we've got it. Bluegrass, we've got it. Celtic, we've got it. Western swing, we've got it. We've got Gypsy swing, and French cabaret, too. Singers to rival or surpass those on Broadway, we've got them. Do we have the vision to find a way to put all that talent and variety in front of the tourists and business travelers?
Renaissance kings and princes realized it was to their strategic advantage to attract and keep the best artists. Modern movers and shakers will come to see that a vital resource is underestimated, underused, undervalued and right under foot.
Isn't one of the key aspects of management the effective use of resources? Why not be known as a center for world-class music? In significant numbers, the world-class musicians are here.
As plans are made for the future, we hope local excellence will find its place. Places. Downtown. To skeptics, I repeat, "come and see."
---
* JEFF WHITELEY was a street musician in Paris, is the leader of Lark & Spur, and the founder of Excellence in the Community. He can be reached at [email protected].

[jmonkey]

Another way to support Main Street during mall construction: Go check out MUAH:

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_4493983

And then I highly recommend the Gandolfo's on Main Street. This one is authentic--one of the original restaurants in the chain--and quite different than the shitty chain stores of the same name.

Ok, I'll shut up now.

[delts145]

:

JMONKEY, we could start a thread on the performing arts along the Wasatch. Let's do it!!!!! You take the honor. I have alot of articles to contribute. Just think of taking pics of all of our spectacular performance venues, and their constant stream of international performers.

[delts145]

U.S. team officially moves operations to Kearns, providing a 'terrific boost'

Mike Gorrell
The Salt Lake Tribune

U.S. Speedskating's decision to relocate its headquarters to Kearns was hailed Wednesday as another step forward in the state's efforts to become the country's winter-sports capital, a goal and legacy of playing host to the 2002 Winter Olympics.

In a welcoming news conference, Gov. Jon Huntsman, Jr. said U.S. Speedskating's impending move provided "indisputable" eidence that the Utah Olympic Oval and other Games infrastructure, plus strong community support, reflected a "partnership developing between the state, sport and athletes that will last well into the future."

For his part, new U.S. Speedskating Executive Director Bob Crowley said he was "absolutely pumped to be here.... With the Olympic tradition built here, this is the right place to be."

U.S. Speedskating had been based in Westlake, Ohio. But the U.S. Olympic Committee thought that location was too far removed from the organization's long-track speedskaters, most of whom trained on the "fastest ice on Earth" in Kearns.

Numerous world records have been set at the oval since it opened in 2001.

Talks about moving the organization to Salt Lake County began last February during the Turin Olympics, said Jeff Robbins, president of the Utah Sports Commission, a nonprofit group created by the Legislature to attract national and international sporting events to Utah.

With U.S. Speedskating joining the Park City-based U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association in calling Utah home, Robbins said the state has a "pretty good calling card" when touting its sports pedigree to other organizations considering staging events here.

The Sports commission, whic is funded largely with transient room tax revenue, will provide U.S. Speedskating with $250,000 over the next five years to stage events at the oval, plus another $150,000 over the next two years to cover relocation costs.

"it was a bargain to get them here," said Robbins.

The Utah Athletic Foundation, UAF, which oversees the oval and Utah Olympic Park outside of Park City, will not charge U.S. speedskating any rent to set up its headquarters at the oval.

UAF Dirctor Colin Hiltion said the organization's presence will draw more people to the facility, increasing its revenues, and will provide a "terrific boost for up-and-coming speedskaters."

Elite speedskaters will benefit even more, bringing them closer to the administration and to the sports-science services that are directed by Eric Heiden, winner of five gold medals in speedskating at the 1980 Olympics.

Heiden's presence prompted distance speedskater Catherine Raney to move from Calgary to Salt Lake. "I'm looking forward to working with him to develop a four-year plan for me. " she said.

Chad Hedrick, who won three medals at the Turin Olympics, also is excited about the propect that short-track speedskaters eventually may move to Kearns from Colorado Springs, figuring cross training will benefit both groups. Crowley said that issue will be explored soon, "but we're not ready to push that button yet."

Perhaps the most ebullient person Wednesday was Doral Vance from the Oquirrh Recreation and Parks District, which a decade ago succeeded in attracting the oval to Kearns.

"I don't think we ever assumed the outcome would be this big," he said. "This is a great opportunity to get more Utah kids involved. Let's get these kids on skates."