The third anchor store at the LDS Church's proposed City Creek Center is still a mystery, but a church representative on Wednesday let slip a name: Dillard's.

At a Salt Lake City Planning Commission meeting set for routine public input and updates on the church's plans for the project — a 20-acre mixed-use development to replace the ZCMI Center and Crossroads Plaza — Mark Gibbons, president of the church's real-estate arm, Property Reserve Inc., referred to 100 South between Main and State streets as a Dillard's frontage.

That is the first time the department store has been mentioned as part of the project, for which The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is partnering with development company Taubman Centers Inc.

"I misspoke," Gibbons said after the meeting. "That site has been referred to by many as" a Dillard's location, but he emphasized the slip of the tongue was not an announcement. When asked who had referred to the site as Dillard's and in what context, Gibbons said only that negotiations with possible retail tenants are the domain of Taubman.

When the church first unveiled its plans for the project in October, it announced plans for Macy's and Nordstrom, two department stores currently located in the two downtown malls, to remain as part of City Creek Center. Church officials said a third, yet-to-be-announced department store would also be part of the project.

"We hope to have another department-store anchor," Gibbons said Wednesday. "There are a number of department stores that could go at that site."

Attempts to reach Taubman and Dillard's representatives by e-mail and telephone late Wednesday were unsuccessful.

A search of the Taubman Web site shows that Dillard's has anchored at least six Taubman-owned shopping centers throughout the United States, including two in Virginia, two in Florida, one in North Carolina and one in Texas.

A City Creek Center Dillard's would be Utah's seventh. Dillard's stores are currently located in the Fashion Place and South Towne malls in Salt Lake County; the Cache Valley Mall in Logan; the Newgate Mall in Ogden; Provo Towne Center; and the Red Cliffs Mall in St. George.

Dillard's has expressed interest in downtown Salt Lake City in the past.

In January 2003, as Nordstrom was threatening to leave downtown if it was not allowed to move to The Gateway, the vice president of Crossroads' then-owner Foulger Pratt Cos. said the company planned improvements to keep Nordstrom happy, including bringing in stronger anchor stores.

He specifically named Dillard's, saying the company had expressed heightened interest in locating at the mall.

Nordstrom later withdrew its threats to leave downtown after its executives saw preliminary plans for City Creek Center and liked what they saw. Crossroads was purchased by the LDS Church, specifically so the church could renovate the two downtown mall blocks as a whole.

At Wednesday's commission meeting, Gibbons said the church expects to have full schematic drawings for the retail portion, as well as much of the residential portion, of the center sometime in March.

---

E-mail: dsmeath@desnews.com