Leaders hammer out Salt Palace expansion deal

In order to save their semiannual Outdoor Retailers convention, Salt Lake City, county and state leaders gathered around the peace pipe Thursday and took a puff.

Those leaders, including Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson and members of County Mayor Nancy Workman's staff, hammered out a tentative Salt Palace Convention Center expansion deal designed to keep the Outdoor Retailers, a division of VMU Expositions, in Salt Lake City for several years.

Whether the deal is sweet enough for the retailers, who are thinking about moving the convention to Denver, Las Vegas, Orlando or New Orleans, remains to be seen. VMU has been weighing their options because the show has outgrown the Salt Place's 365,000 square feet.

Civic leaders cringe at losing the summer and winter conventions since together they funnel $32 million into hotels, restaurants and other downtown businesses.

So while they had blamed each other for playing politics with the convention earlier this week, the two mayors — along with a slew of business and community leaders — reached the tentative agreement Thursday afternoon.

Hours later the Salt Lake City Council, acting as the city's Redevelopment Agency Board, tentatively approved the deal, which also needs blessing from the County Council, the state Division of Community and Economic Development and would require the state Legislature to approve a hike in hotel or restaurant taxes.

"It's something that we would be foolish not to pursue," City Councilman Dave Buhler said.

Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau President Dianne Binger told the City Council the convention was "ours to lose."

"If we don't do anything we are losing $32 million in annual business. It's gone," Binger said.

The deal calls for the state, county and city to contribute $170,000 each toward architectural plans for a $45 million expansion project. That money would also fund a large exhibit tent for the outdoor retailers this summer.

Next, a $10 million bond would be issued that would pay for a new, level structure to the west. That structure would allow the convention planners to construct a better, larger temporary exhibit tent for the retailers show in 2005.

The debt payments on that $10 million bond would be split with the city paying $250,000, the county paying $500,000 and the state paying $200,000 for 10 years.