SALT LAKE CITY — Smith Entertainment Group is proposing a 99-year lease to keep the Utah Jazz and a new National Hockey League team at the Delta Center, directly east of the facility. There is information that the company is seeking to lease two additional blocks. The application was filed in Salt Lake City last month.
The company's seven-page application is neither long nor detailed. However, it does discuss proposed rezoning, road adjustments and renovations to the Salt Palace Convention Center, which is located directly across from 300 West. The application does not list costs, but calls for “significant public financing” to make the project “financially viable.”
“To make the subject property financially viable, maximize the overall positive impact of the project on the surrounding community, and justify the significant private investment, significant “Public financing is required for the development of the project area,” the company wrote.
Smith Entertainment Group is scheduled to submit a proposal to Salt Lake City Council members on Tuesday, and KSL obtained the seven-page application through a public records request on Friday. Salt Lake City has until September to finalize an agreement, but that's not the only big challenge ahead.
Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, who also plans to submit her fiscal year 2025 budget proposal on Tuesday, said the City Council will need to consider and scrutinize both major fiscal proposals in the coming weeks and months. means.
what smith wants
Smith Entertainment Company filed its application on April 4, sparking the city's process outlined in legislation approved by the Legislature earlier this year to create a downtown revitalization zone. The lawsuit was filed about two weeks before Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith officially acquired the Arizona Coyotes and signed a deal to move the team to Salt Lake City.
The application focuses on preserving Delta Center and securing leases for the surrounding Salt Lake County land, which would require major renovations to downtown Salt Lake City.
The group is asking the Salt Lake City Redevelopment Authority, which owns the land on which Delta Center is located, to extend the current lease for 99 years at the same interest rate as the current lease. Smith said last month that while he initially sought to build a new arena “south” of Salt Lake City, he ultimately remodeled the interior of Delta Center to match the hockey rink configuration and maintain a similar experience. He explained that he had decided on a plan to do so. Jazz fan.
The application states that interior renovations to the Delta Center will be carried out “over several off-season years.” The process is expected to begin with a new locker room for the new hockey team. Smith Entertainment Group filed paperwork with Salt Lake City this week ahead of construction, according to city records.
Once completed, the arena is expected to accommodate about 17,500 fans for NHL games, Smith said.
His group is now more focused on projects outside of the Delta Center. Smith noted that his original vision was to build a new arena within the entertainment district, mirroring trends occurring at other stadiums in the United States.
The company is now trying to recreate that experience next door to Delta Center. The plan says the project area will be the full 100 acres outlined in SB 272, but Salt Lake County has officially designated two blocks east of Delta Center as an RDA for “substantial redevelopment.” It requires leases to be leased on “substantially the same financial terms” as leases. Field of “Urban Regeneration and Reconstruction”.
That would require renovating the Salt Palace Convention Center, located 300 meters west of the Delta Center. Abravenal Hall, the remnants of Salt Lake City's historic Japantown, and the Radisson Hotel may be located within two blocks east of the arena, but the application makes no mention of those properties, and There is also no map showing the outline.
The document says the Utah Department of Transportation and Utah Department of Transportation will need to be involved because the project also includes “rerouting, permanent closure of certain surrounding roads, and bridge construction.”
That would include rezoning on the Salt Lake City side. The company asked the city to remove maximum height restrictions within the project area, and to allow “arenas,” “stadiums,” “helipads,” “parking lots, commercial facilities,” and “parking lots, off-site” “Uses that apply'' are requested. Applicable zone. ”
Request for public funds
Smith Entertainment Group also outlines how some of it will be covered.
It is asking the Salt Lake City Council to approve a 0.5% sales and use tax and collect the “full amount” of it. The tax was established by SB272. It will be up to the Salt Lake City Council to approve the tax increase, which could last up to 30 years.
The proposal could also require “tax increase financing and the creation of a public infrastructure district.” The former is a collection of profits generated from projects that increase property values in an area to pay for improvements.
“(Smith Entertainment Group) is committed to ensuring that the project area and surrounding areas are desirable, where Utah residents and visitors alike will want to regularly visit, shop, recreate, congregate, work, and live.” We believe it will become a destination,” the company wrote.
He did not say how much private funding would go into construction, but Mike Maughan, president of Smiths Entertainment Group, said at an event to discuss the bill in March that his company plans to invest in the project. He said he expected to spend “billions of dollars” on the project.
The company plans to file a complaint with the Salt Lake City Council next week, ahead of a public hearing on May 21.
salt lake decision
According to the new law, the City Council has until September 1 to vote on whether to agree to the contract with Smith Entertainment Group. City leaders said they could vote on the bill as soon as early July, giving them about two months to negotiate a final agreement. This means that the content of the application may change in the coming months. A new state rehabilitation commission would also have to approve the agreement.
The city must approve a citywide sales tax increase by the end of the year. The announcement comes as the city is also developing its 2025 budget, which must be completed by the end of June.
“It's going to be tough,” Salt Lake City Councilman Dan Dugan told KSL.com Thursday.
Activation zones can cast a shadow over the budget process. City officials held a meeting Tuesday to help residents understand how the budget was put together, but ultimately received several questions and comments regarding SB272.
One resident read out her concerns from a piece of paper she had written during the event.
“Rather than being excited, our city government representatives should be appalled by the proposal to increase the city sales tax to develop a revitalized zone hockey team,” he said. . “The cost of hockey teams should be reflected in ticket prices and borne by participants across the state. Salt Lake City residents should not be forced to pay for hockey fans' tickets.”
Sports economics experts are also skeptical about the plan and similar red-light districts. J.C. Bradbury, an economics professor at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, questioned Smith's claims about new areas on social media as SB272 is being considered. He said there is “little evidence” that sports venues “drive the kind of commerce that downtowns need to thrive.”
Dugan said he couldn't comment much on what he saw in an interview with KSL.com, but noted the project has potential beyond hockey. He said significant improvements to downtown housing and transportation could “lift the whole city up.”
But he declined to say whether the City Council is leaning in one direction or another. This will be sorted out at the same time as the city council formulates next year's budget.
“It's going to take a lot of time, a lot of cooperation, a lot of discussion from (city leaders and staff),” he said.