With much in flux around the city, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall sat down with Salt Lake Tribune reporter Andy Larsen for a conversation about the stadium district outside of the Delta Center, plans at the ballpark, and a proposed raise of her own salary.
Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall Q&A: On the proposed stadium district, a potential raise, and the future of Smith’s Ballpark
Let’s get into the district. I’ll start kind of conceptually: SEG project director Mike Maughan said that downtown needs “revitalization” and “reimagination.” Do you agree with that idea, that downtown is in a place where it really needs a significant changing in order for it to be the downtown we want it to be?
For us to capitalize on the momentum that we have built, not to mention the potential catastrophes that could happen from an identity and an economic standpoint if we don’t — simply based on the momentum we have, this is a good decision for us. So it’s such a fortunate place to be that we’re not a stagnant city. We are still the fastest-growing state in the nation, with a strong economy and a doubling downtown population. And we get to, in a way, potentially supercharge the benefit of our growth by this unlocking of our downtown.
It wasn’t a surprise to me because the whole purpose of the 100-acre district definition was about tax increment potential. That’s the purpose of defining what the net area can draw from. So that was always about increment potential, be that through an HTRZ or a traditional project area. They’ve asked for 99-year leases on those three blocks, on what they call substantially similar terms to the current Delta Center lease. Is there anything you can do, or want to do, to make it more difficult for them to leave contractually? Like, right now, if they leave the Delta Center, they only have to pay back the TIF money that they got in 2016.
Yeah. Can we talk about comment Ryan Smith made at the press conference? That it doesn’t work to keep the Jazz downtown if they have to build a separate NHL facility somewhere else? There’s also the side of this that if we don’t work with this opportunity, we stand to lose a huge part of our identity — of who Salt Lake City is. Why you come downtown. We lose the economic hub of our downtown economy. Where Downtown Alliance’s data from 2022 says — 76% of our busiest days downtown are tied to Delta Center activity. A boarded and potentially blighted Delta Center, and no reason for investment to look at downtown over other parts south of us.
Because according to state code, there’s a process that municipalities go through to put things on the ballot, which would be in August, when the primary ballots go out. And we’re obliged through the legislation on this to pass that tax in early July. So there’s no timeline that makes that a reality.
So I would like to see the county participate in this capital stack in some way. And I absolutely think that the state should be a participant as well. There’s a number of different ways the state can participate.
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