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Gene Kennedy reportingThe spot that was once the Crossroads Mall and ZCMI Center is now transforming into a new piece of downtown Salt Lake City. Construction on part of the new City Creek Center is underway right now.
The concrete foundation of a new residential tower is being poured at the corner of South Temple and West Temple, where the Inn at Temple Square used to be. Now it's a 50-foot deep hole and crews will pour concrete through the night. The trucks will keep coming and the pumps won't stop until Saturday.
They call it the 15-hour pour. One hundred twenty concrete trucks will be involved, each one making eight trips throughout the night to get the material, all to lay the foundation of a new residential tower.
Dave Kasteler, with Okland Construction, said, "The tower that we're building here on this site will be an amazing addition to downtown."
When it's done, it'll be 32 stories high, but for now it's all about that first concrete pour. Crews started at 7 o'clock tonight and will wrap up at 6 p.m. on Saturday.
"One of our keys with this is that it has to be one solid mass of concrete, which will make this a solid foundation for a building of this type," Kasteler said.
This is the first major step forward in the City Creek project since crews demolished the old Key Bank Tower back in August. Since demolition started in November of 2006, three blocks of downtown Salt Lake City have been a hardhat zone, with some areas just sticking out like a sore thumb. It'll be that way for a few years, but by 2011, what was a massive hole in the downtown landscape will transform into residential, retail and office space. It will also include landscaped open space with gardens. It's called a mixed-use development.
Grant Thomas, with Okland Construction, said, "It used to be all mixed. There was office, there was residential. The residential was above the retail on the ground floor, so I think this is a step towards bringing that community back."
Once the City Creek project is done, there will be a total of six residential towers, solely condos and apartments.
While this concrete pour is taking place, crews are also building a parking garage for the new Nordstrom.
This project will impact traffic downtown this weekend. Drivers should be aware that portions of South and West Temple will be closed until the job is done Saturday evening.
E-mail: gkennedy@ksl.com
