'City Creek' OK'd — LDS Church gets permits for 5-year project

Salt Lake City has given The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the official go-ahead: Five years of work on the planned City Creek Center can start tonight.

The city on Monday granted the first permits to Property Reserve Inc., the church's real-estate arm, for the planned revamp of two blocks at the heart of downtown. That means the barricades can go up and the Inn at Temple Square can come down.

"We are all thrilled that the first tangible work on this site is about to proceed," PRI president Mark Gibbons said Monday. He added this assurance: "Downtown and these blocks will continue to be open for business."

Sometime after 10 tonight, PRI's construction contractors will close the sidewalk on the east side of West Temple from South Temple midway to 100 South. Along with the sidewalk, the right-turn lane from West Temple to South Temple will close.

That has at least one business owner worried.

"We just can't imagine not being able to make a right turn on West Temple," Utah Woolen Mills Clothiers owner Bart Stringham said. His store, at 59 W. South Temple, plans to remain open during construction and once City Creek Center opens. "That's the main thoroughfare. We've been assured that our right-of-way and access to our business won't be denied."

But the right-turn closure is necessary to allow a staging area for construction trucks, according to Bill Knowles, ombudsman for Downtown Rising, a coalition of businesses plotting downtown's future.

"We will guarantee that business access is fully respected and maintained," he said.

Stringham said he's not sure yet how he will respond once the turn lane closes.

Salt Lake City transportation director Tim Harpst said the closures will have little effect on traffic in the area, and PRI and others involved remain hopeful that will continue throughout the entire project, which will ultimately see the demolition of most of the blocks currently housing the Crossroads Plaza and ZCMI Center malls.

"This is the opening of downtown," Salt Lake Chamber president Lane Beattie said. "This is the beginning."

While City Creek Center will be a "monstrous project," said Downtown Alliance director Bob Farrington, it represents only 20 acres out of 400 acres making up downtown's core. He said it will be fully contained, so there will be almost no impact on the surrounding shops, restaurants and offices.

The work will have no effect on Christmas shopping at Nordstrom and Macy's, both of which will remain open through the end of the year, he said. And the work "will have no bearing" on downtown holiday lighting displays or the Gallivan Center's First Night celebration on New Year's Eve.