Salt Lake Skool Lunch gets a reprieve

Downtown workers who frequent Skool Lunch on South Temple will have at least another month before they have to find somewhere else to eat.

In November, signs at the restaurant went up warning diners that the location would be closing, "not by choice," at year's end. That closure has now been delayed.

"We're not sure exactly how long a reprieve it is," owner Merrill Hansen said Wednesday.

The location is set to close as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints revamps the ZCMI Center block, on which Skool Lunch has sat for almost 25 years, and the adjacent Crossroads Plaza block to make way for City Creek Center, a 20-acre mixed-use retail, office and residential development set to open in 2011.

Skool Lunch sits at the base of the Eagle Gate Tower office building. The tower will remain open through construction and will stay as part of City Creek Center, but changes planned for the lobby are pushing Skool Lunch out.

The schedule for that lobby work has changed, and Hansen plans to use the extra time to continue planning what to do next.

In May 2005, Hansen opened a new Skool Lunch location on 400 South and Main Street, but it typically serves employees of businesses farther south in downtown. Hansen has hoped for extra time to consider options for the central-city location.

"Nobody's really putting dates on it, but we were told we would have at least another 30 days after the first of the year," Hansen said. "It helps. We were looking for more like 90 to 120 days, and maybe we'll get that."

He said he has been in talks with nearby building owners about the possibility of opening his store near its current location — if he decides that's what he wants.

"We're like everyone else," he said. "We're still trying to get a vision of what that project will look like once construction starts," adding that if it appears construction will keep people away from the area, he may not want to open nearby.

Church officials and city and business leaders have regularly emphasized that they don't anticipate construction will interfere with downtown business.

City Creek spokesman Dave Smith said work remains on schedule, with plans on track to close the Crossroads Plaza parking garage Jan. 4 in preparation for demolition.

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E-mail: dsmeath@desnews.com