Salt Lake City Inn to Close as Area Development Plans Move Ahead

The Salt Lake Tribune
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

May 18–The inn soon will be gone and a handful of small stores at Crossroads Plaza have been instructed to move on, indications the LDS Church’s plans to revitalize Salt Lake City’s stagnating downtown district are moving ahead — even if the grand design remains nebulous.

The Inn at Temple Square, a church-owned hotel at 71 W. South Temple with 90 rooms and unobstructed views of the LDS Temple, will close sometime in the next few months. Church officials previously suggested apartments or condominiums will be built on the site.

Closing details, however, are uncertain enough that not even Neil Wilkinson, director of marketing for Temple Square Hospitality Corp., which runs the inn, knows whether the hotel’s doors will shut in weeks or months.

“For all I know it could be a year from now,” said Wilkinson, whose Temple Square Hospitality is a for-profit division of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Mark Gibbons, president of the church’s real-estate branch, Property Reserve Inc., said the closing date has not been decided.

Along with the inn, at least one store in Crossroads Plaza has been advised to accelerate plans to move. Two others — Wet Seal and Utah’s only Frederick’s of Hollywood outlet — closed because of slow business.

Tom Perry, manager of Multimedia Center, learned he had to be out at the end of June, six months earlier than he once was told. “They said, ‘We’re not extending anybody’s leases,'” said Perry, who wanted to remain downtown but opted instead for 2715 E. 3300 South because city-center rents are so high.

Encouraging tenants to move early “makes no sense at all,” he contended. “It’s going to hurt (businesses) through December. They’re just kissing all this rent good-bye.”

Terry Jessop, owner of Frog World, received a letter from the law firm Kirton & McConkie telling him to pack up because his lease would not be renewed after its April 30 expiration.

“My client would appreciate if you would immediately vacate the lease premises thus avoiding the expense and publicity you will incur if (the) landlord is required to continue these eviction proceedings,” the letter said.

Jessop, whose store carries children’s clothing and stuffed animals, said he has spent thousands of dollars advertising its presence in the mall. He does not understand why it cannot move to another space in Crossroads, which is almost one-third empty.

“I’ve worked hard. It would be wonderful to be able to stay here,” he said.

Gibbons said redevelopment timetables for Crossroads and ZCMI Center are “undefined. Until the precise timetable for redevelopment is determined, we’re not entering into long-term leases.”

Still, he added, shoppers will find retailers at both malls through at least December. “That’s the window through which we’ve made commitments at this point.” Gibbons declined to comment on specific tenants.

Alison McFarlane, Salt Lake City’s senior adviser for economic development, said a handful of mall tenants contacted her for information about relocation loans.

She called mall representatives, who said they are “in design mode.”

“What that means, I don’t know,” McFarlane said. “We’re all hoping to see some things as soon as they feel comfortable showing us.”

Some reactions were favorable.

Salt Lake Chamber President Lane Beattie interpreted the closure notices as a sign the church “must have something else planned. That’s very positive news. If it weren’t, why are they letting the (businesses) go?”

Recent briefings by LDS Church officials have left Salt Lake City Council Chairwoman Jill Remington Love saying she feels good about redevelopment plans for the first time in two years. “Construction may be imminent and they’re going to be shuffling people around,” she said.

Losing The Inn at Temple Square, Wilkinson acknowledged, certainly will disappoint regular visitors such as avid genealogists and people who spend honeymoons and anniversaries there.

“A lot of people like to stay here so they can see the temple. They like staying right next to a historic landmark,” he said, explaining his desire to get word of the closure out early so “they will have a chance to pop back here one more time.”

Wilkinson also wanted to prepare the 100-plus staff members of the hotel and its restaurant for the impending closure, which he insisted was not driven by economics.

Citing the hotel’s consistent occupancy levels, he said “it was not a financial decision, but what was best for those blocks. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices for the best of the city.”

By Mike Gorrell and Heather May

BUSINESSES APPLY FOR DOWNTOWN GRANTS: While some mall tenants are closing shop downtown, other businesses are trying to set up on Salt Lake City’s Main Street.

The city’s Redevelopment Agency set aside $100,000 to lure new businesses to Main; five applied. Another eight businesses are vying for a share of an extra $100,000 the RDA allocated for existing Main Street tenants.

The RDA board, which is the City Council, could dole out the money in June.

New businesses can receive up to $20,000.

The applicants and their proposed locations are:

–The Spanish television stations Univision and Telefutura, which are looking to open in the former Wells Fargo Building on 200 South or the Crandall Building at 100 South.

–Vienna Bistro, 132 South.

–Wilson-Davis & Co., a stock brokerage firm, 242 South.

–European Bakery & Cafe, in one of the temporary buildings south of Hotel Monaco.

–Vast FX, a marketing and advertising firm, in one of the temporary buildings south of Hotel Monaco.

Existing Main Street businesses can get up to $15,000 to make improvements to their buildings. Applicants are A.J.’s Quick Mart, 270 South; Atlantic Cafe Market, 325 South; the Cheers to You bar, 315 South; House of Kabob & Pita, 268 South; the Incantation restaurant, 159 South; Royal Eatery, 379 South; Sam Weller’s Zion Bookstore, 254 South; and Shogun Restaurant, 321 South.

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