More than a dozen eating establishments have closed at Crossroads alone in the past 18 months. Retailers like The Discovery Channel Store and The Gap at Crossroads, and The Dress Barn and the Hallmark at the ZCMI Center, have closed their doors.

"I think something like 70 percent of everyone is vacating," F. Kelly Christensen, president of Iceberg Drive-In Inc., told the Morning News in an interview earlier this year. Iceberg left Crossroads in late 2004.

"If you go through the whole mall you'll see lots of the bigger boxes have vacated as well," Christensen said. "I know Panda Express, McDonald's and Chick-Fil-A are staying, because they've got the pockets to stay. All of those little Chinese, Mexican and pizza places are going to go."

In February, Dean said Tabula Rasa received a letter from the church, offering to terminate its lease. About the same time, Dean said he was contacted by Simon Property Group Inc., which owns Trolley.

"Obviously, their leasing department was aware that a lot of tenants were going to be looking at their options," Dean said.

For the record, Katter said Trolley is not courting downtown mall tenants. But, she said, "if there's interest from tenants in those downtown centers, we'd certainly talk with them. We've had contact with some."

The church in October 2003 announced its plans to invest "hundreds of millions" of dollars renovating and redeveloping the two downtown malls. The plan included and, according to church spokesman Dale Bills, still includes a mix of retail, housing and office space.

Since the 2003 announcement, the church has brought on mall developer The Taubman Co. as a partner, as well as AEW Capital Management, its real estate advisory firm. It announced the addition of an education component to the project and displayed preliminary artists' renderings of concepts under consideration.

When asked about communication between the church and its tenants, Bills said the church and Taubman are precluded from discussing the project, with the public or with tenants, pending the resolution of other negotiations.

In a lengthy statement released to the Morning News, Bills said, "As previously announced, Taubman and the church are seeking to conclude a development agreement outlined in a letter of intent signed earlier this year. Definitive documentation and final terms of the agreement are still being negotiated by representatives of both organizations.

"As we've said also, the scope and timing of the project are contingent upon resolving negotiations with a number of critical third parties. These contingent negotiations must be completed before more details can be announced."

Bills declined to speculate on when those negotiations will be complete, but he reiterated the church's "unwavering commitment" to downtown Salt Lake City, and to the project.