Nu Skin has announced a plan to expand its presence in Provo while the LDS Church has confirmed it has purchased part of the street near the planned Provo City Center Temple.
Gary Garrett, Nu Skin vice president of corporate relations, said the company will build a new garden south of its new Innovation Center that is under construction. Garrett said Nu Skin will relocate its parking garage to southwest of the existing parking garage. He declined to discuss to whom they had sold the land. City planning officials said Wednesday they had not yet received an application for the new development, which will have to be approved through the city ‘s planning and building approval process.
Nu Skin has also purchased an eight-unit apartment complex it plans on demolishing, along with a warehouse building it is using for its audio-visual studios. These buildings are located southwest of the current Nu Skin headquarters.
“That will allow us to open up our campus and the gardens we have planned south of the innovation center we have south of our building,” Garrett said. “We will have a very large space and garden area, it’s been our project for quite sometime.”
Asked about the other buildings west of the new Innovation Center that currently house Sensuous Sandwich and Bingham Cyclery, he said Nu Skin is at various stages of developing its master plan for the block. Garrett estimated the plan will be finalized in about a month.
Garrett said Nu Skin is excited to do business in downtown Provo.
“We have had great cooperation from Provo City in terms of our redevelopment of the downtown area,” he said. “We love the downtown area and want to continue see it growing and be revitalized. It’s a great place for students.”
Attempts to contact Sensuous Sandwich and Bingham Cyclery were met with little response. A staff member at Bingham Cyclery said the matter was a sensitive topic and they didn’t know what current plans for the building were.
Dave Oka, analyst for the city of Provo, said the city is happy with the development that’s going on downtown.
“There has not been this kind of development on Center Street for years,” he said. “We see this as a significant development in the future of the economic vability of our downtown.”
Scott Trotter, a spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, told The Salt Lake Tribune the church is buying a portion of the street south of the temple on 100 South that will be part of the soon-to-be remodeled Provo Tabernacle.
