Holding offers Salt Lake County property for new convention center

The perpetual parking lot may actually be developed.

Representatives of Earl Holding, owner of the Grand America and Little America hotels, Sinclair Oil and the Snowbasin and Sun Valley ski resorts, have told Salt Lake County officials they would grant a long-term, virtually no-cost lease on their 10-acre Block 40 property, and three acres on Block 39, if the county would consider building a new convention center there in lieu of partnering in a hotel project near the Salt Palace.

The properties are currently paved parking lots directly north of Holding's two hotels, between the Matheson Courthouse on the east and West Temple on the west.

The idea came to light Tuesday, as Salt Lake County began vetting the idea of building a new, 1,000-room hotel near the current Salt Palace convention center. The only official action taken by the Salt Lake County Council was to appoint a seven-member advisory committee to study the proposed hotel, among other things.

County officials and representatives for Holding were hesitant to talk about the proposal in detail, since the idea has only been privately discussed.

Clint Ensign, senior vice president for governmental services for Sinclair Oil, said Tuesday that the Salt Palace is a facility that was not master-planned, has been expanded on a piece-meal basis and, in the long-term vision of downtown needs, will need to be replaced anyway. He said he hopes the county advisory committee will consider his company's proposal on an equal footing with the hotel idea.

"If we're looking at the long-term, we ought to look at both options," Ensign said.

Ensign said he was assured by county officials that the idea would be passed off to the committee for review.

Jim Braden, spokesman for Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon, said Tuesday the idea would be on the table, along with the hotel plan, for the committee's consideration.

Utilizing the property for a convention-centric project has long been on the table for Holding, who has raised controversy in the past for turning down government offers to buy the property. In 2002, Ensign told the Deseret News the land was in an area they envisioned as "a nucleus for convention, tourist and business activity."

The need for a new, large-capacity downtown hotel for conventiongoers has been championed by several groups, including the Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau. Scott Beck, chief executive officer of the bureau, said Tuesday that Salt Lake is missing out on valuable convention business due to the dearth of hotel rooms in the city.