Zions Bank move, Nu Skin expansion revitalizing downtown Provo landscape

PROVO — Under heavy security, nine banks of safe-deposit boxes were hauled Friday from the old Zions Bank building on 100 N. Freedom Boulevard into the new Zions Bank Financial Center on University Avenue and 200 North.

"We have a team of professionals plan these moves," said Kelly Ward, area president and manager of the Provo region branch of Zions Bank. "We've done this before, so we know the procedure."

When the new bank building opens for business at 9 a.m. March 29, it will mark a major step in a $100 million-plus face-lift for downtown Provo that will include a $45 million county convention center and a $30 million expansion of Nu Skin's corporate headquarters.

City officials hope the mix of public and private building projects will jump start the economic recovery of the city's historical downtown.

"The reason we did what we did here was to be a catalyst for the resurgence of downtown," Ward said.

The bank's customer-service operations will occupy part of the first floor of the 130,000 square foot building. The third and fourth floors of the eight-story building will be office space for the Provo region, which extends from Lehi to Richfield and from Delta to Roosevelt.

All told, Zions will occupy about 30 percent of the building, bringing 66 employees from various offices in Utah County to a single location.

"We've waited for this for a long time," Ward said. "This is the culmination of nine years of work."

Aaron Cook with NAI Utah, the leasing agent for the financial center, said leases are being negotiated for retail businesses on the ground floor, as well as the fifth and eighth floors.

Work on the building started in 2008, before the economic downturn stalled similar projects like University Tower, a mixed-use project consisting of a 10-story office tower and two four-story towers on the historical Knight Block, two blocks to the south. That project is still on hold.

"Zions has had a very, very optimistic outlook on the future," Ward said, noting that the company didn't slow down the building despite a darkening economic climate. "This has always been the right move for us and the presence we wanted to have in the Utah County area."