City Creek work no biggie in poll

Downtown construction appears to be having little effect on people's plans to visit the area, according to a new survey of Salt Lake residents.

The recent Dan Jones & Associates poll, conducted for the Deseret Morning News and KSL-TV, found that just under half — 45 percent — of those surveyed said ongoing construction will have no impact on their downtown plans.

Thirty-eight percent said the construction would make them either much or somewhat less likely to head downtown for shopping, dining or other non-work activities.

"The constant challenge, I guess, is to let people know that downtown is perfectly accessible," Downtown Alliance director Bob Farrington said in response to the poll results.

"We work hard to let people know that downtown is open and accessible," he continued. "There's many things to see and many areas of downtown that have absolutely no construction."

Despite high-profile projects, particularly the City Creek Center development and light-rail construction near The Gateway, all roads remain at least partially open, Farrington said.

The survey proves that downtown continues to thrive, despite ongoing construction, said a spokesman for the 22-acre City Creek Center.

"These results show that many people understand that downtown Salt Lake City remains open for business," said Dale Bills with Property Reserve Inc., the real-estate arm for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is developing the property.

City Creek will eventually replace the Crossroads and ZCMI Center malls with an indoor-outdoor mix of retail, residential and office space.

In the meantime, Bills said, developers are working hard to minimize disruptions and pointed to several downtown buildings that remain open during construction, including the ZCMI food court and many existing office buildings.

The Downtown Alliance defines "downtown" as the area between 300 East and 500 West and North Temple and 400 South. Farrington wondered if survey respondents who said they were less likely to visit downtown during construction weren't taking a more limited view of the area.

"The old definition of downtown . . . was just Main Street," he said.

For those not terribly familiar with Salt Lake City, Crossroads and the ZCMI Center — both of which were on Main Street — may be considered "the beginning and the end" of downtown, he said.

Farrington also noted that construction is certainly not limited to downtown Salt Lake City.

"In many other parts of the valley, the traffic and construction is immeasurably worse, and that doesn't seem to quite resonate as it does downtown."

The poll was conducted between Sept. 3 and 6 and included 500 registered voters from Salt Lake City. It has a 4.4 percent margin of error.

---

E-mail: awelling@desnews.com