Mixed-Use for Mormons

SALT LAKE CITY - While the economic crisis has silenced hundreds of real estate projects around the country, 1,100 construction workers are toiling on a 20-acre development here that is springing up across the street from the Mormon Temple in the center of downtown.

A private development of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, City Creek Center will be the largest mixed-use project in Salt Lake City. When completed in 2012, it will encompass 900,000 square feet of retailing, including an outdoor pedestrian shopping mall capped by 115 apartments; 1.6 million square feet of office space in eight buildings; a grocery store; and five residential towers with about 600 condominiums.

The development, which is within sight of the Mormon Tabernacle, will also feature six acres of public spaces and a retractable glass roof over the retail component. A man-made creek will run through the property.

The Mormon Church, which has its headquarters in the city, is investing "hundreds of millions of dollars" in the project, said Mark Gibbons, president of City Creek Reserve Inc., a real estate arm of the church, while declining to be more specific. The project will reshape downtown, Mr. Gibbons said. "We believe there won't be anything anywhere that compares with it," he said.

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