Salt Lake City plans ‘bold’ renewal project near Rio Grande Depot
sltrib.com/news/2351724-155/salt-lake-city-pl...
sltrib.comPosted Apr 2, 2015, 4:58 PM UTC
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sltrib.com[deleted]
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The city needs to realize that there isn't enough commercial development in the world to make the part of downtown west of West Temple not sketchy if they aren't willing to do anything about it but commercial development. It's not just the homeless problem, either.
I am so happy I live as far east as I do, the area around the gateway is more sketch than I'd prefer these days.
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Hmmm, wonder what will happen to In The Venue.
Sure, it could probably use an uplift, but it's not going to go from Sketchy to perfect without some work (and I don't mean construction). With the drug problem in that area, there is still going to be a lot of people who don't want to go there.
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I would not miss that place for a single second. First class shithole.
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I wouldn't either, although I've been to some fun shows there. But they're definitely not going to keep it.
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Hate the name, but I'm happy with the project.
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I support mixed use development downtown and I think this is an interesting idea. I hope that developers involved won't make their involvement contingent upon the relocation of the Road Home. There are too many services consolidated downtown to simply force the homeless somewhere else. Salt Lake has made big strides to deal with chronic homelessness and I hope the city doesn't undercut that progress by trying to hide or shunt the problem somewhere less noticeable.
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I was skeptical, due to the Road Home being right there, but then I remembered that Pierpont used to be the sketchiest drug haven, and is now pretty cute... Still, though, not too sure about this.
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I like the idea! But they need to move the Road Home for this to work the way the city wants.
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I was at the RDA press conference and the unveiling of this "Station Center" project. The idea is to help the homeless issue and reduce sketchiness by bringing development, people and money to the area. The example used was the farmers market and the twilight concerts. On days that there is that much community involvement in the area it isn't very sketchy at all. It becomes a really cool place to be in the city. It will be interesting to see if developers will try a new approach, or go with the same bland model like Gateway.
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I wish the SLC Government would tackle the problem of homelessness first before coming up with fancy plans to supplant those who are suffering from it.
Gateway was a similar "renewal project" that was done instead of focusing on Main Street. Now that City Creek is the preferred mall, does Gateway need renewal?
The RDA should be dissolved. They're terrible at their jobs and they have been for decades.
Completely agree. I work in the Gateway and there's no way this is going to work. People don't avoid these areas because they're not developed. They avoid them because they sketchy. The homeless and drug problems in this area of SLC need to be dealt with first.
I work ~3 blocks east of this entire thing new plan.
I find needles, tin foil, plastic baggie things, and more, where I park every day.
Yesterday I walked past two guys who were smoking dust on 2nd south.
Monday I watched a guy take a piss on the corner of 2nd south and 3rd west. At 415pm.
Crap, I didn't think anyone was watching :/ I'll head closer to 4th west next time.
Charming...
There's no way to solve homelessness or drug problems. All they can do is move them to some other part of SLC, and I would guess there's behind - the - scenes work to do just that as part of this deal.
If not, it'll be a big screwup from the RDA. Nobody is going to buy high quality office space in that neighborhood as is.
Is Gateway even paid for?
This just seems like a terrifically bad idea.
Nope. And their collateral was downgraded by Moody's in December. https://www.moodys.com/research/Moodys-Downgrades-Five-and-Affirms-Seven-Classes-of-JPMCC-2010--PR_314398?WT.mc_id=AM~WWFob29fRmluYW5jZTQyX1NCX1JhdGluZyBOZXdzX0FsbF9Fbmc%3D~20141205_PR_314398
Thanks for sharing that. There's some really interesting data in there.
The money shot is here: "The loan sponsor, Retail Properties of America, announced in its Q3 2014 SEC filings that it had written down its carrying value for the property [The Gateway Mall]. The move followed the REIT's decision to abandon a plan to upgrade the property and an acknowledgement that further decline in performance at the property was expected. Total sales at the property for the January -- October 2014 period were down approximately 20% from the same period in 2013. "
-20% Y/Y is staggering.