Salt Lake City Looks West for Downtown Revitalization

Tony Semerad reports on the impending development of the western portion of Salt Lake City's downtown, an "often overlooked" neighborhood populated mostly by Latinos that continues to struggle with chronic homelessness.

Christopher Smart covered the adoption of the West Side Master Plan in September 2014, describing some of the planning mechanisms meant to drive the neighborhood's revitalization as well as the larger vision of the plan.

Semerad, however, delves into the development potential found in the neighborhood: Private developers, governments, arts and civic groups and a host of other powerful interests have multiple projects in the works around Rio Grande Depot, pushing downtown decidedly westward with millions of dollars in public and private investment. Some development deals have been a decade or more in the making; more are expected to follow."

In fact, writes Semerad, "[the] pending building boom has given a variety of key players — from some of Utah’s biggest developers to City Hall and the Utah Transit Authority — major financial interests in the area’s success."