Unity Center work is progressing

Mayor Rocky Anderson and Public Services Director Rick Graham told the Salt Lake City Council on Tuesday the Unity Center is coming along, although portions of the overall campus — near 900 West and 1300 South — won't be completed by winter 2005.

The actual center will be finished on time. But an expanded fitness center, which would be funded and operated by county tax dollars at the neighboring Sorenson Multi-Cultural Center, and a potential expansion of the Guadalupe Schools won't be completed by 2005.

Graham told the Council the city has offered to donate $750,000 to Guadalupe Schools as seed money that will help the school raise funds to build a new school on the Unity Center/Sorenson Center complex. That seed money will come from the $4.5 million the Alliance for Unity donated to the city for the Unity Center as a solution to the Main Street Plaza fray.

Some council members said the Salt Lake City School District was concerned about the city donating $750,000 to a private school, but Anderson said he is working to address the district's concerns.

The city is negotiating with several providers — like the University of Utah, medical providers and others — to provide a wide range of educational, medical and professional services at the Unity Center.