O.C. Tanner sees sparkling future

It isn't often that a 78-year-old company gets a brand new start, and O.C. Tanner wasn't necessarily looking for one.

But when The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints informed tenants at its Gateway Tower East office building that renovations would require them to relocate, O.C. Tanner — which built its first retail store in downtown Salt Lake City in 1976 — saw it as a chance to reassert its commitment to downtown and emerge in its new location at 60 E. South Temple reinvigorated and running.

The new store, which celebrated its grand opening this month, is just a half-block from the former location. The space is light, with the showroom stretching 7,500 square feet, and it is the recipient of $1 million in O.C. Tanner-funded renovations.

"In a nutshell, we love downtown Salt Lake City," said company chief executive Kent Murdock. "It has a rich tradition, and when the two big blocks are redeveloped, with other downtown blocks reviving in the process, it will be one of America's finest downtown areas.

"We feel like the cultural and emotional center of the greater Salt Lake community is downtown, and that a fine jewelry store should be located there. It's where the action is and always will be for our type of enterprise."

This summer, the University of Utah's Bureau of Economic and Business Research reported that 61,250 people work in Salt Lake City's central business district, which is bounded by 300 East, North Temple, 400 South and 500 West. Of those people, the bureau estimated that 51,250 are office workers. Total wages paid in the central business district increased to $2.1 billion in 2005, up about $150 million since 2001.

Geographically, the bureau reported, "the (central business district) is the most highly concentrated wage center in the state" and accounts for $900 million more than the state's second most concentrated wage center, the U.

"That's 61,000 coming into my neighborhood every day, many of them among the state's top wage earners," said Curtis Bennett, O.C. Tanner vice president of retail operations. "If someone were to ask me to write for myself the demographics I'd want for my store, I couldn't have written it any better than this. I have no doubt that downtown Salt Lake City is the center for commerce in the area, and that with the $1 billion that the LDS Church has promised to invest in the area, it only promises to enhance the area as a whole."

Diminishing retail