Salt Lake City: Official Development News Thread - Part 5

[RC14]

I fear our state leaders are too overzealous to make something out of the prison site.

I'm guessing many of them immediately dismissed downtown as being too crowded to fit a development of that size and never gave any downtown location serious consideration.

..Hopefully I am wrong.

[Comrade]

Originally Posted by wrendog

Draper, eh. Well, Utah's shot for Amazon HQ2 is done.

Pretty much. Once again, the state bungles an opportunity. Our leaders, across the board, are completely inept.

[asies1981]

Update on the Exchange. They have already started the applications with planning so this is moving along nicely.

[asies1981]

Because our legislature is chock full of suburban developers, I expect the Draper site to be the site that was in the bid to Amazon. While that is disappointing, if Amazon where to build it's second headquarters in Draper, it would still have a positive effect on Salt Lake. Much of the city's current residential boom can be attributed to the tech boom and a majority of them will want to live in and around downtown. It would only be a 25-minute FrontRunner trip between Draper and Salt Lake. While it wouldn't be the ideal situation, Salt Lake would still benefit.

[Ironweed]

Originally Posted by DanskeUtahn

http://http://dailyutahchronicle.com/2017/11/09/coleman-amazon-hq2-fall-utah-bezos/
This article hints that the our Politian's have the Draper Site as the top pick for the Amazon HQ2.

If the Draper site does happen to be chosen for Amazon HQ2 we will be seeing a huge sprawl mess in the South West part of the valley and in northern Utah Valley in Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain. It is a good location as far as getting the talent pool, but there is nothing there, no entertainment no restaurants no urbanity. It will be a bottleneck in the state with terrible traffic and unsustainable development. Does our state not see the consequences of urban sprawl on the quality of life in the Wasatch Front?

I love this post! Thank you!!!

[Utah_Dave]

Originally Posted by asies1981

Update on the Exchange. They have already started the applications with planning so this is moving along nicely.

Give me this project, the Ritchie group, throw in the held project and a long shot Regent project and things will get very interesting over the next few years. Looking forward to all this getting underway.

As for Draper. It’s going to be incredibly interesting to see how Sandy, Draper, and Lehi transition from suburban communities to full fledged faux urban cities. It’s already all wrong in Lehi and it looks like Draper will follow suit. Sandy is only slightly better. I see far more negatives then positives for this area. Particularly for Draper and it’s geographic bottle neck. I hope they can pull a rabbit out. Plus they destroyed the mountain with the massive gravel pit. I wonder if they can reclaim the north salt lake quarry a little when they are done. On a side note, I’m curious if all the excavation along the fault could play a role in relieving or speeding up the next earthquake in the immediate vicinity.

[Orlando]

Originally Posted by DanskeUtahn

http://http://dailyutahchronicle.com/2017/11/09/coleman-amazon-hq2-fall-utah-bezos/
This article hints that the our Politian's have the Draper Site as the top pick for the Amazon HQ2.

If the Draper site does happen to be chosen for Amazon HQ2 we will be seeing a huge sprawl mess in the South West part of the valley and in northern Utah Valley in Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain. It is a good location as far as getting the talent pool, but there is nothing there, no entertainment no restaurants no urbanity. It will be a bottleneck in the state with terrible traffic and unsustainable development. Does our state not see the consequences of urban sprawl on the quality of life in the Wasatch Front?

Ahh.. Utah's leader's developmental visions is so Arizona, Southern California, Texas suburban sprawl crap. If HQ2 sets up shop on the prison site, it will be a downtown that would be larger than downtown SLC. Bad visioning.

[bob rulz]

Originally Posted by asies1981

The PC approved the first phase of the Ritchie Group's Block 67 development.

Excellent excellent news! I can't wait to see this get started!

[Marvland]

Originally Posted by DanskeUtahn

http://http://dailyutahchronicle.com/2017/11/09/coleman-amazon-hq2-fall-utah-bezos/
This article hints that the our Politian's have the Draper Site as the top pick for the Amazon HQ2.

If the Draper site does happen to be chosen for Amazon HQ2 we will be seeing a huge sprawl mess in the South West part of the valley and in northern Utah Valley in Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain. It is a good location as far as getting the talent pool, but there is nothing there, no entertainment no restaurants no urbanity. It will be a bottleneck in the state with terrible traffic and unsustainable development. Does our state not see the consequences of urban sprawl on the quality of life in the Wasatch Front?

No offense to the author of this article, which is quite good, I find it hard to believe that a student writer at the U Chronicle has the inside info from the governor's office. He is simply repeating the the conventional wisdom. Greg Hughes, who reps Draper, let it slip a while back that there are three sites that are in play. Draper's mayor let it slip that he is under non-disclosure, so there's the prison site. Other large state-owned parcels are out there but only a few high-profile ones. One of them is the state Fairpark. It sits on 50 acres and the state also owns 10 acres across the street. I have my doubts as to the situational awareness of SLC's team, but if they are involved, Salt Lake City could easily throw 15 to 20 acres into the pot.

[AllOutOfBubbleGum]

Originally Posted by Marvland

No offense to the author of this article, which is quite good, I find it hard to believe that a student writer at the U Chronicle has the inside info from the governor's office. He is simply repeating the the conventional wisdom. Greg Hughes, who reps Draper, let it slip a while back that there are three sites that are in play. Draper's mayor let it slip that he is under non-disclosure, so there's the prison site. Other large state-owned parcels are out there but only a few high-profile ones. One of them is the state Fairpark. It sits on 50 acres and the state also owns 10 acres across the street. I have my doubts as to the situational awareness of SLC's team, but if they are involved, Salt Lake City could easily throw 15 to 20 acres into the pot.

Haha someone linked a student paper for inside info 🤣. I need to check Snapchat really quick.

[Comrade]

It's cute people think the Utah legislature and government will pick a site other than Draper's.

I believed in Santa once, too.

[Orlando]

[airhero]

It was always wishful thinking to believe Utah would submit anything instead of the Draper site. The state desperately wants it developed. But if Utah did pitch multiple locations in their proposal (as was the case with many proposals), I would be surprised if a Salt Lake location is not there. Again, Utah leaders are clearly partial to the Draper site but I don't believe they are stupid. With regard to preferences and requirements in the rfp there are a lot of things Draper simply can't offer that Salt Lake can. I also don't think Amazon's history in urban Seattle was ignored. I would be extremely disappointed if the state didn't detail some option for a more central location in the proposal. Of course this is all a moot point anyway since Salt Lake has essentially no chance at landing it.

[airhero]

Originally Posted by asies1981

Update on the Exchange. They have already started the applications with planning so this is moving along nicely.

I still have a lot of doubts but I've been imagining this across from 4th and 4th apartments and I want it so bad. We need good developments in Central City--especially along the 400 South corridor.

[(Eco)nomy_404]

Originally Posted by Comrade

Pretty much. Once again, the state bungles an opportunity. Our leaders, across the board, are completely inept.

I still haven't gotten over the outdoor retailer's convention. That is when I completely lost hope in UT leadership (at least at the state level.) What's even more frustrating is that a majority of the populace is equally inept at applying political pressure/delivering political consequences for such ineptitude by state leaders.

Originally Posted by Comrade

It's cute people think the Utah legislature and government will pick a site other than Draper's.

I believed in Santa once, too.

How possible do you think it would be for Amazon to say, "Yes, we want to come to Utah, but only on the condition that we get a more central/urban site." There certainly are a lot of logistical advantages to the state (especially with the new UPS site) as well as a deep talent pool that could attract them. They might counter offer by demanding a more central site in SLC. Proximity to the airport, confluence of two major cross-country interstates, major shipping facilities, epicenter of the 120-mile regional mass transit system, etc make fairgrounds area seem very attractive. I'm with you that state leaders would easily fumble the opportunity. But maybe Amazon might take the lead on it? Still a long shot, but who knows...

[Comrade]

It comes back to the fact Utah's legislature is mostly suburban and rural. Because of this, the mindset is located there, too. Salt Lake City just doesn't have the political clout other major cities in the region have within their state. We're seen as expendable, either because the politics just doesn't line up with theirs or because we are essentially insignificant. Just look how the legislature manipulated the RDA funding to squash RSL's stadium downtown. They changed the law, saying cities could not use RDA funding on sporting venues, knowing it would all but end any chance of SLC being able to build the stadium downtown. Then when Sandy, who was running into the same funding issues Salt Lake had, pushed, the legislature reversed the law and allowed for RDA funding which magically saved the stadium and its location - 20 miles south of where it was to be built originally.

There's value in the suburbs. There isn't value in the city. We're probably the only significant US city (regionally or nationally) who has no representation in their state's legislature and zero pull there, as well. Even places like Denver and Phoenix have significant pull within their state's politics. Not Salt Lake City. We're a consistent afterthought. Has been like that since Utah became a one-party state in the 1980s.

[Always Sunny in SLC]

If you were asked what the heart of downtown is, what would you say? CCC? Tem Sq? S. Temple and 3rd West? I don't think we have one, but I guess I am assuming we need one. Maybe not.

[taboubak]

The developer of the new 370 millennium tower planned for downtown has formulated a website with the design of the new tower and can be viewed here http://lccpropertiesgroup.com/portfo...lennium-tower/
This would be a great addition to the skyline if completed.

[airhero]

Nice. Thanks for posting that site.

A few pics:


http://lccpropertiesgroup.com


http://lccpropertiesgroup.com


http://lccpropertiesgroup.com


http://lccpropertiesgroup.com

It looks good! Although the base still looks off to me.

[nushiof]

Very nice! I like that it stretches the skyline both South and West.