City Creek Center in Salt Lake City to open in March

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A new shopping area in downtown Salt Lake, City Creek Center, will open its doors on March 22, 2012, and is part of a larger City Creek Project.

The project has been in the works for more than 10 years, though the idea has been around for much longer, said Linda Wardell, project director for the City Creek Center and Taubman Properties employee.

The City Creek project, which spans two  city blocks in downtown Salt Lake City, is a mixed-use development project. This means there are several different components  involved. The project includes three parts — office, residential and retail — and City Creek Center is the retail portion, Wardell said.

While the office and residential portions are mainly being handled by City Creek Reserve Inc., a property development affiliate of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Taubman Properties is overseeing the building of City Creek Center, Wardell said. She said Taubman Properties is excited to be doing this project.

City Creek Center will have many features beyond what a regular shopping center has to offer, Wardell said. According to shopcitycreekcenter.com, this new center will  “transform downtown Salt Lake City.”

Taubman Properties announced last week in a news release the names of 80 stores that will be featured at City Creek. Twenty of these stores are unique to the market and 17 are unique to Utah, Wardell said. The entire center is 800,000 square feet.

“Retailers are so excited to be coming to Utah,” Wardell said. “Utah’s economy is healthy enough to bring in these new stores, which I think says a lot about the economy in Utah.”

According to the news release, some of the stores will include Tiffany & Co., Michael Kors, and Coach. There will also be a two-story Nordstrom and 150,000-square-foot Macy’s. In addition to shopping, there is room for four fine dining restaurants, including Texas de Brazil Churrascaria and The Cheesecake Factory, Wardell said.

“Consumers in Utah have an appetite for some of the unique retailers out there,” Wardell said. “We have definitely achieved our goal of attracting them to the center.”

The food court is already open and will soon include a  dining area for children, Wardell said. It will feature child-size furniture and will be close enough to the adult area that parents can enjoy their meals while their children eat too.

A creek will go throughout the entire mall, along with two 18-foot high waterfalls. Wet Design, the company that designed the Bellagio in Las Vegas, custom designed three fountains that have light, sound and animation.

One of the most unique features of the center will be its retractable roof. This will allow the center to open during all types of weather, Wardell said.

“It is really amazing,” Wardell said. “If it is a beautiful day, we can open the roof, and on those cold, snowy, Utah days, we will be able to close it and still maintain business.”

Taubman Properties is hoping to attract consumers from all over Utah to visit the new center, especially university students, Wardell said.

Cortney Burns, a senior from Littleton, Colo., said she was excited to hear about the new center.

“It sounds like a high-end version of the Gateway,” Burns said. “It will be a really cool place to even just walk around without shopping.”

Wardell said the center is on track to open on March 22. A digital countdown is on the front page of the City Creek Center website.

Because much of the property  the center is being built on is owned by the LDS Church, retail stores will only be open six days a week, according to Downtownrising.com. This new center will generate a lot of new jobs for people in the area, Wardell said.

Anyone interested in regular updates of City Creek Center can visit shopcitycreekcenter.com. While the grand opening will be March 22, parts of the center, such as the food court, will open before.

 

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