A lonely downtown welcomes Channel 2

And a big Main Street welcome to KUTV Channel 2.

More makeup. Exactly what downtown needs.

News that the CBS affiliate is thinking seriously about relocating to the 200 block of Salt Lake City's Main Street on the street level of the Wells Fargo Center comes as welcome news to those of us who would be Channel 2's new downtown neighbors. There hasn't been this much excitement since the Olympic ticket scalpers were here. The buzz on the street is "You mean somebody's moving in?"

It can get lonely downtown. Sometimes, it gets so quiet all you can hear are people protesting on the Main Street Plaza.

The downtown logo is "Space Available." Up and down Main Street, storefront after storefront is disguised as a boarded-up building.

I did a walk-through on the west side of Main between 100 and 300 South last week and counted 16 businesses open in 35 available storefronts. And one of them was the "Rocky for Mayor" headquarters. Win or lose, that place will be vacant by October, so make it 15 out of 35.

In the malls, it's not much better. Gart Brothers pulled out of the ZCMI Center last week. A few weeks before that, the music store and the haircut place left.

It's to the point that homeless people are on the Welcome Wagon route.

Small wonder the city approved $4 million in mostly interest-free loans to entice Channel 2 to move from West Valley City back to downtown.

Plus, as an added incentive, super close proximity for Nordstrom's upcoming huge going-out-of-business sale.

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Some people may have a problem with the city cutting such a sweetheart deal for the TV station, but I don't. Anyone that has almost 200 employees and David Letterman and wants to rent 31,000 square feet of space should get a sweetheart deal, especially when there's so much vacant space for rent.

Old American business axiom: It's when the airplane is empty that you can get the cheap seats.

Only when the airplane is almost full, do you pay full price — and sit next to someone who didn't. Happens to me all the time.

What I have a problem with is people who chastised our Olympic organizers for doing essentially the same thing 10 years ago — cutting a sweetheart deal for the IOC so the Games would come to Salt Lake.

Won't let it go, will I?

Besides, if there's anything sinister about the deal, "Get Gephardt" will be right on top of it.