Win-win downtown plan?

With the Salt Lake City Council facing an Oct. 14 deadline, various parties in the contentious Nordstrom/Gateway debate are kicking around a potential solution that might appease all sides: expanding Salt Lake County's Salt Palace east into the Crossroads Plaza block, thereby connecting the convention center to Main Street and funneling convention traffic into a redeveloped Crossroads Plaza and the city's central commercial district.

But Salt Lake County will only commit to the eastward expansion if Nordstrom stays in Salt Lake City — either at The Gateway or at Crossroads, according to the Boyer Co.'s Kem Gardner. Nordstrom has insisted it will leave Salt Lake City altogether when its Crossroads lease expires in 2005 if it is not allowed to move to The Gateway.

"This could provide a win-win for everybody," said Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson. "We keep Nordstrom, and they expand the convention center into the Crossroads block."

The deal is being put forward by Salt Lake County officials, including Mayor Nancy Workman and Councilman Randy Horiuchi, and it has been pitched to Boyer Co. executives Roger Boyer and Gardner and to H. David Burton, presiding bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Anderson and City Council Chairman Carlton Christensen have also been apprised of the details.

The LDS Church wants Nordstrom to stay at Crossroads, which it recently purchased with a pledge to revamp it and connect it to the ZCMI Center, which it also owns. Councilwoman Nancy Saxton , who has met with church officials, says the church is planning to put $500 million into the project, which she said will have three anchor stores and more housing.

If Nordstrom leaves Salt Lake City, county officials may opt against expanding the convention center into Crossroads. Instead, the Salt Palace might expand west to vacant land the county already owns west of the complex.

LDS Church spokesman Dale Bills couldn't offer much comment, but he did confirm that "exploratory conversations have been held" with the county.

Christensen said he doubts the church would go for the proposal because it paid big bucks for Crossroads Plaza and the county would likely be looking for free rent for the expansion — much like the $1 a year lease it has with the church for the land where the Salt Palace Convention Center currently rests.

"It's really holding the church hostage," Christensen said. "My sense is that the county's not interested in paying market value for the land. I'm not sure the church would pay whatever they paid for the mall just to turn it over to a convention center. It's not my understanding that (the church) is interested."

County officials are mum at this point about their proposal.