LDS Church to turn Triad into an education center

But, he said, "I want to encourage everyone, including the City Council and the Legislature, to take a look at some of the legal restrictions that apply throughout our downtown area and take reasonable measures to permit a wide range of choices for all the people who live in this area and visit our city."

Dave Buhler, Salt Lake City councilman and associate commissioner of public affairs for the Utah System of Higher Education, called the Vaticanization claims "bogus."

"This is a diverse city, and there's a diversity of property owners," Buhler said. "That's the way we want it, and that's the way it will continue to be, and it will only get more diverse over time. I think whenever anyone is willing to make a substantial investment in our downtown, we should welcome that."

The Triad Center deal also may serve to link Main Street with The Gateway, Buhler said, by drawing an anticipated 5,000 students downtown every day.

"One of the concerns we had for the last few years is how do we connect The Gateway to Main Street, and with the redevelopment of the Main Street malls, would that be a source of competition that would put The Gateway under?" Buhler said. "We want both parts of downtown to succeed. I think putting several thousand college students at the steps of Gateway will be very beneficial to them, and good for downtown also."

City Council Chairman Carlton Christensen said though he "hated to see it leave the tax rolls, there's clearly other properties that will increase in value because of it. I think that some of the surrounding properties will benefit from having 5,000 students here. So I think that helps solidify this portion of downtown, and in time will help close the link between downtown and here."

Church officials will meet with existing Triad Center tenants today to outline the renovation plans and answer questions. Burton said he hopes most of the tenants will choose to stay.

"There's about 500,000 square feet of space" available at the Triad Center, he said, which won't all be filled by the education campus — at least not at first.

Existing tenants, including Strong & Hanni Law Firm and Equitable Life & Casualty Insurance Co., declined to comment until after the church makes its presentation.

Eventually, Burton said, all of the commercial real estate space will go off the market. Wesley Tab Cornelison of Prime Commercial Inc. said if the church goes forward with that plan, it "will change the downtown Class A vacancy rate from 20.1 percent to 13.2 percent."

"That's big news," Cornelison said. "If you're Boyer and you own The Gateway, I think you're going to like it, because it puts more bodies at your front doorstep. If you're a tenant, like a law firm at the Triad Center, you might not want your corporate offices on a college campus. If you're an insurance agent, maybe you like it. Who knows? It depends on where you're sitting and from what viewpoint. But it will change the climate of this vicinity, immediately."

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E-mail: jnii@desnews.com