New hotel and parking in the works for Provo City

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Provo City and Central Square properties are collaborating to develop a plot of land bound between 100 North and 200 North and 200 West and 300 West, a block known as Block 86, to make a more efficient use of space.

Block 86 where construction of new hotel, parking, residential and commercial will start. (Photo by Daniella Subieta)
construction of new hotel, parking, residential and commercial will soon begin to revamp the image of Block 86. (Photo by Daniella Subieta)

The land, owned by the city’s redevelopment agency and William Bancroft of Central Square Properties, presently consists of older, empty buildings and parking lots. Plans for future construction are still nebulous, but the collaborators talked mostly about a hotel to go along with the nearby Utah Valley Convention Center, as well as parking, residential, retail and office space use, in discussions held April 2 and 4.

Bancroft, owner of Central Square Properties, owns the whole block, except for one parking lot corner owned by the city. The words “millions of dollars” were thrown around the meeting, but Bancroft said he is unaware of what the cost will ultimately be; he is willing to work with the city.

“If it’s good for Provo and successful, it will enhance other properties I have around here,” he said.

What is good for the city will also be good for the convention center, according to Kent Sundberg, Civil Division Chief from the County Attorney’s Office.

“We need a hotel and parking lots, that’s what the county’s really interested in,” Sundberg said during the Thursday charrette.

Land planner Sid Ostergaard, hired by the city as part of a team of four from Elliott Workgroup Architecture, said the architects will preserve the residential feel.

“We intend to incorporate residential to honor what’s already there,” Ostergaard said, “and not turn our backs to that … townhouse feel … (it’d be) a little more dense, versus a single family. That’s something that the downtown kind of needs is that density.”

It looks like right now the residential would be on the northwest corner, with the hotels adjacent to the streets.

“It’s definitely mixed use,” Ostergaard said.

The land planners will return to the drawing board and come up with two or three solid proposals to present to the city in document format within a couple weeks.

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