City Creek Center is rising on schedule despite economy

Each day, the steel framework seems to rise

higher out of the ground, as construction workers, dressed in orange

vests and hard hats, scurry back and forth between churning cement

mixers, clawing backhoes and the half-dozen cranes that make up Salt Lake City's temporary skyline.It is an otherwise unremarkable scene except for one thing: In a

down economy, the $1.5 billion City Creek Center is the last of the

large, mixed-use projects still going up around Salt Lake Valley.

"Construction ... is well under way, on schedule and increasingly

visible above ground," said Dale Bills, spokesman for City Creek

Reserve Inc., a development arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of

Latter-day Saints.Richards Court, a pair of 10-story condominium buildings on South

Temple, will be ready for tenants in the first quarter of 2010, Bills

said. A new City Creek food court will be open this summer.

At the KeyBank Tower, a redesigned lobby and new office space will open later this year.

Construction crews have also begun laying the framework for a retail

center on West Temple, just south of what will be a 30-story

residential building, Bills said.

When it is finished in 2012, City Creek will be a mix of boutiques,

department stores, grocers, restaurants and more than 700 apartments

and condominiums — a combination planners hope will pump life back into

the city's struggling downtown.

"People on the streets make cities vibrant," said Frank Gray, Salt

Lake City's community and economic development director. "Think back 10

years when the city was a bustling place during the day but became