Salt Lake purchases 2 Main Street buildings

If Salt Lake City residents didn't have enough reason to care about downtown Main Street revitalization, they do now.

Taxpayers on Thursday became part owners in the city's most discussed street.

The city's Redevelopment Agency Board, which also is the City Council, opted to purchase buildings at 125 and 127 S. Main for $1.7 million.

Barring any unforeseen complications the city should close on the purchase in a month or two.

The plan is that the buildings will be remodeled and leased for $4,000 a month by the Utah Museum of Art & History over 10 years. The museum is then expected to purchase the building for $1.7 million after that decade.

Before the board dedicated the building to the museum, one man asked the city to send out a request for proposal (RFP) so he could submit his plans for the buildings. Those plans were for a French restaurant.

However, the board decided against an RFP and there was much discission about whether that decision would offend Mayor Rocky Anderson.

When he first took office, Anderson vetoed a similar deal the Redevelopment Agency (RDA) board approved with the University of Utah's Museum of Fine Arts at the Brooks Arcade building. When he discovered the deal hadn't followed the RFP process, Anderson vetoed it. AlphaGraphics ended up moving into the space following the "request for proposals" process. A few years later, it was discovered that Anderson had no legal power to veto the board's decision.

Given that Anderson doesn't have a veto, the board went ahead Thursday and approved the deal with the museum, which already has an option to lease the building. Also, Anderson proposed that the city put the museum on its upcoming bond election so it's known that Anderson supports the project.

Still, Deputy Mayor Rocky Fluhart warned Anderson might not like the board's process.

"This administration has been very consistent in trying to maintain a very open process when disposing of city property," he said.

In order to get the building, the museum fund-raisers will have to meet certain funding time tables. Currently, the museum has raised only $600,000 of the $8.3 million needed to open. Once it raises the first $3 million, the museum will begin remodelling the buildings beginning with the facades. Raising that first $3 million should take a year, said museum board member Tom Rugh.

Fluhart said he would talk with Anderson and see if the mayor has any objections to the lack of an RFP. While Anderson doesn't have a veto, he could ask that the RDA board to reconsider the process.

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E-mail: bsnyder@desnews.com