The Salt Lake City Council Tuesday authorized a deal that would help facilitate the LDS Church's potential purchase of Block 84 where the Triad Center is located.

The council, acting as the city's Redevelopment Agency Board, directed its staffers to allow the Corporation of the Presiding Bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to assume the RDA's non-financial sublease on the historic Devereaux House, which rests on the southern portion of Block 84.

The move was necessary so the church could continue its effort to purchase the block. The church also needs to gain similar consent from state of Utah, which owns the Devereaux House.

Alyn Lunceford, real estate and debt manager for the Utah State Division of Facilities Construction and Management, said that approval could come administratively rather than needing approval from a legislative body.

Councilman Dale Lambert had concerns that the city was giving up its non-financial lease interest without knowing more about the church's grand redevelopment plans.

"We don't have before us any plans . . . about what's going to happen to this property," Lambert said.

But Mayor Rocky Anderson noted the city currently has no say over what happens to the Devereaux House anyway and didn't even know it had a non-financial interest in the house until the church brought it up.

"All we can do is hold things up," he said. "I don't see anything we have to gain."

In the end the council agreed voting to terminate its interest in the property.

The church has said it is interested in buying Triad Center but has not firmly committed to purchasing the property. Already the church — through various business arms — owns significant portions of Block 84, with California-based M&S Triad LP and the state of Utah owning the rest.

The church has said that owning the block may fit into its grander downtown redevelopment plans, which were announced last year and are estimated at $500 million. Those plans include redeveloping Crossroads Plaza and ZCMI Center mall, along with bringing the LDS Business College and an extension of Brigham Young University downtown.

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