Now city departments are prepared to do some of the things ERA's Spickard proposed in his report Tuesday, like look for additional downtown anchors to join the downtown Provo Marriott Hotel & Conference Center, city offices, the Wells Fargo Center and the nearly complete Performing Arts Center.

They also can provide the market analysis to developers interested in looking at downtown for housing, office space or shopping projects, and potentially help them assemble parcels, said Leland Gamette, Provo director of economic development.

"Data drives the decision-making," Gamette said. "If developers don't have the right data to decide if downtown is the right place for their project, it's difficult. We're trying to make things easy for them to make hard economic decisions about downtown. Now they'll have a degree of confidence that economically, politically and socially it will work."

Spickard said the more office space the better, because workers in downtown provide daytime customers downtown. More dining options are better, too. The ERA report shows Provo could land the equivalent of 20 large downtown destination restaurants of 4,000 square feet in the next 20 years.

Provo already has dense housing in its city center, with 32,000 residents living in a one mile radius of downtown — a more densely populated downtown than Ogden, Albuquerque, Boulder, Colo., and Palo Alto, Calif. — cities ERA used for comparison in its study, but there's room, and demand, for more downtown condominiums and apartments.

"For one, there is an empty-nester movement that is interested in downtown-type environments generally and Provo specifically," Spickard said.

An urban living center is an option that is becoming necessary, said Kevin Call, executive vice president of the Utah County Association of Realtors.

"Given where our cities are now, I think it's needed. We're running out of developable land. The county can't keep growing out in the fashion it has for decades."

ERA provided low projections for housing, dining, office and retail space it believes Provo should reach naturally through population growth. The firm's "prescription" for hitting its high projections included hiring a part-time recruiter to lure dining and retail companies to downtown.

"The focus should be on unique local businesses rather than national retail or restaurant chains," Spickard said. "Don't feel like a failure if you don't get national chains. You want something unique to you. That's what makes downtown a really interesting place."

It also avoids competition with malls.

The report will be available at www.provo.org, and Spickard's public presentation Tuesday night will air repeatedly on Provo's cable channel 17. Anyone interested can contact the Provo Redevelopment Agency, 801-852-6160.

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E-mail: twalch@desnews.com