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SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake County is set to buy nearly 10 acres of downtown property from the LDS Church — at a $27 million discount.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and county leaders will close the deal Friday, when the county hands over a $6.6 million check for the property under the Salt Palace Convention Center and Abravanel Hall.
Today the property is valued at $34 million, but church leaders agreed to sell the land with a price tag that reflects what the land was worth in 1984, when the 30-year lease on the land was last extended.
"We're grateful for the generosity of the LDS Church," Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams said Thursday. "We believe the county has been able to use this property to do great things in the community. … Now we're happy to bring it into public hands."
For the past 50 years, the county has been leasing the land from the LDS Church for just $1 a year, stemming from a 1964 agreement between church and county leaders to use the site to build a convention center.
The contract was amended in 1984, when church leaders gave Salt Lake County the option to buy the land at its $3.3 million market value, plus interest.
That option has been on the table ever since, but it is set to expire in November 2016. After its expiration, the contract would either need to be renegotiated or the county would have to purchase the land at market value.
"The $6.6 million is a great investment for the taxpayers to continue to have the Salt Palace continue to do what it does for the community," McAdams said.
Funding for the land will come from a package of funds the county has set aside from a $33 million sales tax bond that was issued in 2010 to spend on land acquisition and various construction projects, McAdams said.
LDS Church spokesman Eric Hawkins said church leaders are happy with the county's decision.
"We're pleased that they'll continue to use this property for the benefit of the community," he said.
