The billionaire sports mogul wants more control and more public funding for his planned downtown district.
Ryan Smith wants to control at least three blocks of downtown, limit building heights and inject large sums of public money as part of a deal to bring Salt Lake City an entertainment district.
Those details emerged from an April 4 application filed by the billionaire professional sports mogul with the city, starting negotiations to create a new downtown district.
The city initially denied the Salt Lake Tribune's request to release the records, citing trade secrets, but announced Thursday that Smith Entertainment Group (SEG) had finally waived its claim to withhold the records.
The application is the first part of a process established by SB272, a bill passed this year by the Utah Legislature to pave the way for $1 billion in public funding for sports districts. The legislation would allow Salt Lake City to increase property tax rates by half a percentage point to generate revenue for project areas.
Smith, who signed a deal last month to bring a National Hockey League franchise to Utah's capital, intends to host both his new team and his Utah Jazz team at the Delta Center.
His application for the creation of a new school district requires:
• A new 99-year lease for the block currently home to Delta Center.
• Lease two blocks east of Delta Center from Salt Lake County.
• Allows SEG to keep funds generated by the sales tax increase for 30 years, except for a 1% administrative fee paid to the city and what the county and Smith group agreed to use to renovate the Salt Palace Convention Center. do.
(Council estimates the city's sales tax increase will be about $54 million a year.)
• Eliminate building height caps and allow arenas, stadiums, helipads, commercial parking and off-site parking in certain downtown zones.
• Tax increment financing, a tool that allows developers to take advantage of new property tax revenue generated in a region, may be required.
• Creation of public infrastructure districts. Such districts can issue bonds for things like roads.
The application justifies tax increment financing based on the anticipated positive effects of the project, including creating and retaining jobs, increasing property values, attracting additional investment, increasing tax revenue, improving the community, and enhancing recreational opportunities. It is said that it will be
“SEG believes that the project area and surrounding area will become a desirable destination that Utah residents and tourists alike will want to visit, shop, recreate, congregate, work, and live on a regular basis. ”, the application states.
The creation of the district depends on whether the Salt Lake City Council approves the requested tax increase. The council will hear more details about the proposal at Tuesday's meeting.