Downtown Salt Lake Urban Renewal, Public Private Partnerships and the Smith Entertainment Group BY FRAN PRUYN That said, let’s look at some of Salt Lake’s past urban renewal efforts, their track record, then consider what is on the table with the new agreement that was spawned by SEG’s acquisition of the Utah Jazz and the new National Hockey League team. Constant reinvestment in a downtown core is critical to prevent urban decay. Salt Lake City has peculiarities that make that revitalization both inviting and perplexing. (See articles in this REFLEXION on the Salt Lake Plan and the Second Century Plan.) Chief among these are the large block and plat size and the extremely wide streets in downtown SLC, which, while making a city stroll feel more like hiking, also provides more possibilities for expanded green space and multi-modal roads. Subsequent to the 1962 Second City Plan, each decade has looked to draw more people (especially tourists) downtown with the addition of hospitality, retail and entertainment venues and gathering spaces. Sometimes the efforts are entirely funded with taxpayer dollars (such as various iterations of the Salt Palace Convention Center, the Bicentennial Arts Project and Gallivan Private Public Partnerships (P3s) can be very useful forms of collaboration between government and private entities. They can also be disappointing. P3s can be a risky business, but the payoff might be well worth the investment. The Journal of Infrastructure, Policy and Development considered P3 partnerships in its 2021 article: “Review of key challenges in public-private partnership implementation” and recognized that P3s are an effective tool for development, but that there are significant challenges in implementation. The challenges include the different organization cultures of the partners, unreliable mechanisms for sharing risk and responsibility, inconsistency between resource inputs and quality, monitoring and evaluation of processes and lack of transparency. As Salt Lake City has inked a Participation Agreement with the Smith Entertainment Group for a Sports/Entertainment/ Convention and Culture District, (providing the state approves the agreement by Sept. 1, 2024, and Salt Lake County can negotiate a lease agreement with SEG by July 2025) elected officials are eager to make this one work. It has been a fast and furious race to protect the two professional sports teams’ residencies at the Delta Center, and spur future development in the two blocks adjacent to the arena. The need to revitalize Salt Lake’s downtown core is not a new thing. As Tony Semerad said in his recent July 29 Salt Lake Tribune article detailing past revitalization plans, “Reliable as cicadas, grand plans for urban renewal in the heart of Salt Lake City seem to hatch every 10 years or so.” 23
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