Demolition starts next month for downtown redevelopment

Demolition will begin on the LDS Church's much-awaited downtown redevelopment project next month, the beginning of what is expected to be five years of work on the core of Salt Lake City.

Bishop H. David Burton, presiding bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is briefing the Salt Lake City Council on its plan for the development, tentatively called City Creek Center, this afternoon.

"More than 240 retail and office tenants have worked with us to make this happen," Burton said in a prepared statement released prior to the City Council meeting. "Many are relocating; many are staying in place. Everybody — leaseholders, the City Council, Mayor (Rocky) Anderson, city staff and our team of planners, architects and developers — have all come together in the best interest of the future of our city."

• The development will include retail, housing and office components. Demolition will begin in early November, progressing from west to east. It will start at the northwest end of the redevelopment site, a 20-acre plot roughly bounded by South Temple, 200 East, 100 South and West Temple.

• At least six buildings will be demolished, including both Crossroads Plaza and ZCMI Center malls. Most of the mall retailers will either close or relocate. Nordstrom and Macy's department stores will close in January (Nordstrom on Jan. 20). They will reopen when the project is complete — expected to be in 2011 — along with a possible third, and as yet unnamed, anchor retailer.

• Retail on church-owned property, which includes the malls and its anchors, will be open six days a week. Alcohol will not be served on church property, but privately owned facilities, such as the Marriott hotel and other possible fine dining spots, will not face that restriction.

• The development will include six acres of green space, including outdoor pedestrian avenues at Regent and Richards streets and Social Hall Avenue. A pedestrian bridge will cross mid-block on Main Street, but it will not disturb TRAX service. The development also will feature a "representation" of City Creek, which will meander through the site.