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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A lavish Salt Lake City shopping center is on track to generate $266 million in sales in its first year of operation, tax figures released Wednesday show.
City Creek Center — notable for a set of retractable roofs — apparently comes at the expense of downtown Salt Lake City's other outdoor shopping center.
The Gateway, a more family-oriented center, saw sales decline around 20 percent last year to $150 million, the Utah Tax Commission said.
The Gateway lost some tenants - including an Apple store - to City Creek Center, and tax economists say City Creek Center is cannibalizing some of The Gateway's sales. They believe City Creek Center also has grabbed shares of other shopping malls around Salt Lake City, including upscale Trolley Square on the city's east end.
Salt Lake City's newest shopping center is a marvel of technology and architecture spanning two downtown blocks. It sports outdoor walkways, plazas, fireplaces and metal sculpture. Waterfalls, fountains and a trout pond are part of the village-like development, which includes condominiums and is joined by a glass-encased pedestrian bridge over Main Street.
Opened in March 2012, it was built by City Creek Reserve Inc., a for-profit firm owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for a figure widely believed to be $1.7 billion - the church has never confirmed the figure, but doesn't dispute it. A set of condominium towers is believed to have pushed the total cost of the mixed-use development to $2 billion.
"We are very pleased with the performance of the Center and thrilled to be part of the revitalization of downtown Salt Lake City," said Linda Wardell, manager of City Creek Center. "We look forward to the next steps in downtown's growth and vitality."
I can tell you we're very pleased with the performance of the shopping center. It has exceeded our expectations.
–Karen Mac Donald, Taubman spokeswoman
The mall's operator says sales performance is exceeding expectations. City Creek Center's shops and restaurants generated around $200 million in sales in the first nine months of operation during 2012. At that rate, taxable sales will hit $266 million for a full year. City Creek Center opened in March 2012. Full-year figures won't be available for two more months.
The Gateway had taxable sales of $150 million in 2012, down from $190 million the year before, figures show.
The figures are approximate, said Matthew Lund, an economist for the Utah Tax Commission. City Creek's sales numbers include a related development, a Harmon's grocery store across a street, plus a few independent shops on the same two blocks occupied by City Creek Center, he said.
Still, sales at City Creek Center are expected to grow over the years, and it's already grabbing 8 percent of the taxable sales of all Utah shopping malls, he said.
City Creek Center is taking some of The Gateway's shops and sales, but The Gateway will hold its own, Lund said. It caters to a different crowd, mostly young shoppers. It has attractions for children and teenagers that City Creek Center doesn't offer - a theater complex, a children's discovery center and a planetarium.
The church has an active partner to run City Creek Center. Mall operator Taubman Centers said it owns the retail buildings and operates the place under a long-term lease from City Creek Reserve Inc.
The Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based company owns land under two of the restaurants, Texas de Brazil and the Cheesecake Factory, the only establishments open on Sundays - the church required other restaurants and shops at City Creek Center to close for the Sabbath.
Taubman declined to confirm any sales figures.
"I can tell you we're very pleased with the performance of the shopping center," Taubman spokeswoman Karen Mac Donald said Wednesday. "It has exceeded our expectations."
