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SANDY — Smith Entertainment Group completed its purchase of the Shops at South Town on Thursday and it already has plans to break ground on a new training center for the Utah Hockey Club later this month.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the company — owner of the National Hockey League franchise and the Utah Jazz — said it plans to break ground on a new hockey practice facility on Aug. 12. The facility will be located at the south end of the mall near 10600 South in a space previously occupied by the art exhibit Dreamscapes.
The new "state-of-the-art practice and training facility" is slated to be completed next year. Jim Olson, a Smith Entertainment Group executive overseeing the project, said it will feature team offices and at least two NHL-sized ice rinks. The team will practice at the Kearns Oval during its inaugural season and will remain there until its new facility opens.
While the Sandy facility will be for the team, it will also be built to host youth and amateur hockey teams and be used as a general recreation space at times. The rest of the facility will remain a shopping mall.
"Today is a crucial step forward in expanding (Smith Entertainment Group's) real estate footprint and public benefit offerings for our fans and residents of Utah," Olson said in a statement. "We are thankful for our collaboration with the city of Sandy on this project, and we look forward to sharing more details throughout the development process."
The company had announced in May it struck a deal with Pacific Retail Capital Partners to acquire the 111-acre Sandy mall with the intent to build a training center for the hockey club. It seemed likely the facility would be built where Dreamscapes was located because its owner — the Utah Arts Alliance — announced it would move out of the space shortly after the deal was reached.
Derek Dryer, Utah Arts Alliance executive director, said the lease agreement was "unexpected and kind of shocking" because the organization renewed its lease six months earlier. Dreamscapes officially closed on July 14 and it's unclear where its next location will be.
In the meantime, efforts to remodel the Utah Hockey Club's primary home are still ongoing. The Revitalization Zone Committee — a state committee created from this year's SB272 — is reviewing a deal that Smith Entertainment Group reached with Salt Lake City over a downtown revitalization district surrounding the Delta Center. It has a little less than two weeks to make a decision on whether to accept or reject the deal.
Under the agreement, Smith can seek bonds of up to $900 million that would go toward remodeling the arena to make it a viable hockey stadium in addition to being the home of the Jazz. The plan also calls for major changes east of the arena that would turn it into a "sports, entertainment, culture and convention" district.
It would receive funds from a proposed 0.5% sales tax increase in Salt Lake City over 30 years to pay off those bonds. Salt Lake City would also receive some concessions from the deal, including new ticket fees that would go toward affordable housing projects.
If approved by the state, the two sides have until Sept. 1 to finalize the agreement.
