'Culture block' unveiled for Salt Lake

It's kind of a cultural utopia — a mix of film, ballet, plays, opera, symphony and other arts that city and business leaders hope can boost downtown Salt Lake City.

The city's proposed "culture block" or "arts block" has been discussed for several months now, but Thursday night the plan got its first public vetting as Byron Russell, who is heading up the idea for the Salt Lake Chamber, gave new details to the City Council.

All involved say the notion is intriguing, if expensive and still in infancy.

"So often we've had things just scattered everywhere, and to get the kind of synergy we need this sounds like a good idea," Councilman Dave Buhler said.

Imagine Brigham Young University film productions, Ballet West, the Utah Symphony & Opera, the American Film Institute, the Utah Fine Arts Museum, the Sundance Film Institute, the Utah Museum of Art and History and the Salt Lake Film Center all living and breathing on or near one city block downtown, Russell said.

The idea is being planned for the 100 to 200 South block of Main Street. Its linchpin is the renovation of the old Utah Theatre, which Russell said Thursday could cost between $67 million and $83 million — a price tag significantly more than the $55 million that has been kicked around before.

The plan calls for some 2,300 seats at the old Utah Theatre and the renovation of the Capitol Theatre on 200 South with nearly 1,800 seats.

Salt Lake County would run and program those two theaters, with the Utah Symphony & Opera, Ballet West, and maybe movie studios and Broadway plays brought in by Clear Channel Communications rotating time there.

Russell said an earlier idea to have Clear Channel run the theatres has been killed in favor of having the county operate the facilities.

With the two theaters up and running, there would be more development, like smaller black-box theaters and exhibit space for the Utah Fine Arts Museum and the Utah Museum of Natural History. Already the new Utah Museum of Art and History is set to open on the block Nov. 4.

Russell declined to say exactly where such facilities might be located, saying that if specific sites were identified property owners might raise their potential selling prices.

Salt Lake Community College, which is set to reopen its metro campus on Main Street, could also get into the mix, sending plays that currently are shown at the Grand Theatre at its South High campus to the renovated Capitol Theatre.

Moving the Utah Symphony to the renovated Utah Theatre would free up Abravanel Hall for other things.