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SALT LAKE CITY — A project to overhaul Main Street in Salt Lake City and convert it into more of a permanent promenade would likely cost about $125 million, but city leaders and planners say they believe it would finally unlock a vision at least six decades in the making.
The Salt Lake City Department of Economic Development released its long-awaited Main Street Promenade Study late last week, which outlines various concepts and costs for the project to reimagine the road from South Temple to 400 South, as well as a block of 100 South from Main Street to the Salt Palace Convention Center.
The 215-page document is a "high-level" overview of what is possible, said Peter Makowski, deputy director of Salt Lake City's Business Development Division, a section of the department. It takes into account the underground infrastructure and businesses on top of changes to traffic flow in the selected area.
It depicts an area that could be anchored with outdoor patios for restaurants and bars and public spaces. Car access would also be significantly reduced after a concept that limits motor vehicles but allows bicycles and scooters was "by far the most preferred option" from a survey conducted last fall.
"It's a complete redesign of the entire right-of-way," he said, explaining that some sort of "underground infrastructure" would be installed to raise or lower when the street is open or closed to cars.
Yet it's unclear when any of this could come to fruition largely because downtown priorities may have shifted since the study began. Salt Lake City and county leaders are currently engaged with Smith Entertainment Group on a "sports, entertainment, culture and convention district" between the Delta Center and City Creek Center as Utah welcomes the National Hockey League in.
A project decades in the making
The idea of a Main Street promenade has been around since at least 1962.
The Downtown Planning Association called for the street to be "highly oriented to the pedestrian" in its Second Century Plan, a master plan to outline downtown's second century of existence. The plan recommended outdoor cafes, street vendors and kiosks as a part of its grand vision.
Salt Lake City's 2016 Downtown Plan also called for a "unique pedestrian-first experience with activated sidewalks" on Main Street.
Yet the concept wasn't tested much until the COVID-19 pandemic. Salt Lake City debuted "Open Streets" in 2020, where a downtown section of Main Street was closed off to cars on weekends so that the businesses along the road could expand their outdoor dining options to rekindle downtown activity amid public safety concerns.
The pilot program drew over 500,000 people both in 2021 and 2022, according to the study. Last year's event was delayed because the emergency declarations that allowed for the program had expired, and it required some rule changes, but it returned as an "urban playground."
Mendenhall called for the study of a permanent promenade in 2022 as a result.
The future of Main Street?
The report is the culmination of lots of feedback since then. Makowski said that practically every city department got involved in the project, while the city also met with as many entities as possible, ranging from business owners on the streets to organizations with ties to the selected area like Visit Salt Lake and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The city also analyzed the costs and benefits of similar concepts in other global cities.
The latest survey — featuring four alternatives for the road — gathered feedback from over 3,000 participants either online or in person. There, the city found:
- Almost two-thirds of voters picked "Concept B — pedestrian mall and multiuse trail for bikes and scooters," crushing every other alternative or the option to do nothing.
- Three-fourths said they preferred closing and removing cars from the section permanently, compared to one-tenth in favor of keeping cars on the road.
- Respondents said they liked having more opportunities for outdoor dining and outdoor events, as well as more shade from trees that could be planted in the area.
Vehicle traffic in the section dropped after the Utah Transit Authority's TRAX service opened in 1999, but planners took the existing need for some cars on the road into account, Makowski said. He explained it would not "completely remove cars" but do "more to limit vehicular traffic."
All of these points were used as the team forged a concept plan included in the study. Recommended features include:
- Different experiences on every block: a restaurant row by existing bars and restaurants closer to 400 South, a public art gallery by Gallivan Plaza, a performance-centric zone by Eccles Theater and an "all-ages wonderland" at City Creek Plaza. There would also be a nod to historic "Japantown" on 100 South, leading to the neighborhood split by the Salt Palace.
- An overhead canopy sculpture over Main Street at 100 South.
- "An expanded canopy of trees" with hundreds of new trees.
- A "prominent section" to accommodate emergency vehicles and large service trucks.
The probable cost is listed as about $125 million.
"Ultimately, we envision Main Street being a place for people — a place for everyone," Makowski said. "Really, (it would be) a place where people could convene and be with each other and among each other but also a true destination in the city."
Conflicting or connecting plans?
It's not the only city project that focuses on downtown right now. The city already had plans to enhance what's left of historic Japantown and create a Green Loop when the study began, but it ended as the Utah Legislature approved a bill for a downtown revitalization zone by a hockey/basketball arena.
That set up a process now underway that could create an entertainment district between the Delta Center and City Creek Center as the arena is set to be renovated to accommodate Utah's new NHL team. While they are different plans, Mendenhall said she believes Main Street and a proposed entertainment district could link up at 100 South.
"The NHL can be this key that unlocks a whole spectrum of downtown: residents, businesses and centers of energy like our culture. It would absolutely do so with the Main Street promenade and — potentially — the Green Loop as well," she told KSL.com on Monday.
However, that's also a lot of planning to take on all at once.
Despite the Main Street study's release, Makowski said the project is in a "holding pattern" to see what happens as Salt Lake leaders negotiate a partnership that must be approved by Sept. 1 with Smith Entertainment Group and Salt Lake County. Main Street's timeline could become clearer after the outcome.
But if it falls down the list of priorities, it and other projects could also get a boost from the 2034 Winter Olympics.
The new report acknowledges that Salt Lake City received over $400 million in federal funds to "support varied improvements" ahead of the 2002 Games. If history repeats itself, Utah's capital city could get more money to pay for many projects over the next decade.
Either way, Makowski said all the projects have the same goal in mind.
"We want to see downtown grow and succeed," he said. "There is a really unique opportunity to change downtown in a very real way, and we're all seeing that in real time."
