Zions Bank to build tower in Provo

PROVO — The long-awaited announcement of a nine-story Zions Bank Financial Center in Provo will be made today at a press conference.

The announcement of another mid-rise tower in downtown Provo is the second this summer and would give the city three new office towers in the space of two blocks by 2009.

The seven-story Wells Fargo Center was completed in 2005 at 100 N. University Ave. Its next-door neighbor, the 10-story University Tower, is scheduled to be completed by fall 2009.

The $38 million Zions Bank Financial Center will be built a block north, at 200 N. University Ave. All three towers will be on the east side of the street. They join the nearby 10-story Nu Skin tower at 100 W. Center Street to give Provo a freshly imposing downtown.

"This is a project that is probably going to be as substantial benefit for the downtown as any we've announced to date," Provo Mayor Lewis Billings said. "We anticipate institutions that are key pillars in the community will step forward and remain key pillars."

Today's announcement will be followed Thursday by a press conference where the city will reveal the naming rights deal for the Provo Center for the Arts, another major downtown revitalization project.

Zions Bank has tried to develop a new Central Utah headquarters for years but played it close to the vest. The effort has been a poorly kept secret the past six months. The Deseret Morning News first reported plans for the new office tower last winter, and later reported Zions would be the main tenant. The announcement has been expected a couple of times but has been delayed for various reasons.

The project cleared a major hurdle last week when the Provo Board of Education voted to become a partner in the Community Development Area.

CDAs are a new phenomenon in Utah. Still run through the city's Redevelopment Agency, a CDA requires buy-in by school districts before some of the new property tax generated by a project can be diverted to the developer for a period of years to offset some of the costs of redeveloping difficult land.

The Provo School District will return $1.5 million in property tax generated by the project for the first 12 years to PEG Development. The new building will still generate more property tax, an additional $770,000 over the same 12 years, for the district beginning in 2009, when it is expected to be completed.

"This was a tough project," Billings said. "I applaud all involved because it's taken a lot of work."