Salt Lake plan remains on track

Despite escalating costs and deferred deadlines, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reaffirmed its commitment Tuesday to redevelop a major chunk of the downtown malls that is to draw on schools, offices, stores and housing to rejuvenate the area around Temple Square.

The LDS Church, the major property owner in downtown Salt Lake City, announced 2 1/2 years ago its plans to redevelop the Crossroads Plaza block, the ZCMI Center block and the block directly east of the ZCMI Center. Preliminary plans included housing, movie theaters, a complete revamp of the malls and the intangible "walkability" to an otherwise sedate Main Street.

Since then, however, the LDS Church has offered little public comment or updates on its plans. LDS Presiding Bishop David Burton played 20 questions Tuesday with a Salt Lake City Council that tried to extract information from the bishop while conceding the church's difficulties in moving forward.

The vagueness comes because plans have shifted, Bishop Burton said.

"Our commitment downtown remains strong and remains even stronger than it was when we started this 30 months ago because costs have increased, scope has changed and lots of other things (changed) that could discourage someone of lesser spirit," Bishop Burton said. "We are proceeding with vigor and optimism in terms of making those 20 acres . . . a tremendous community asset as well as being a good neighbor to Temple Square and other sacred places."

Costs increased because the price of building materials has skyrocketed after a rough hurricane season last fall, Bishop Burton said. Also, the LDS Church had not planned on moving tenants out of the Key Bank tower before, but it is now repositioning those leaseholders. Bishop Burton did not explicitly say whether the tower would come down after the church empties it.

Bishop Burton did not directly answer questions about a timeline, harking back to his previous statements that delays have long since invalidated previous plans.

"I wish I could give you a timeline, but you probably don't want one," Bishop Burton said. "My credibility with you in the past is almost zero."

The one hint of a timeline came when Councilman Eric Jergensen quizzed Bishop Burton on sales-tax revenue. The City Council adopts a roughly $100 million budget each June, and Jergensen asked whether the city could count on its regular share of sales tax money from the mall tenants and downtown stores in the next few years.