Investing in Downtown Salt Lake City will continue to be a priority for Mayor Erin Mendenhall, as she emphasized the Central Business District’s importance both in the near future and beyond. Though some core ideas have been changed.
And along with those stated investments comes a big issue the city likely can’t avoid: increasing property taxes.
During her State of the City address Tuesday, Mendenhall made a number of announcements, though many revolved around the idea of keeping Downtown as the city’s top priority.
Focusing on Downtown assets like the soon-to-be-built entertainment district near the Delta Center and connecting gathering places citywide creates a stronger city, she said, adding that focus is largely geared toward the upcoming Olympics.
“… in eight years, we will welcome the world for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games,” Mendenhall said. “Downtown will be the focal point.”
Among the announcements made by Mendenhall on Tuesday, she said the former Leonardo museum — where her address took place — will soon become home to city programs and offices, describing the building as “City Hall East.”
She said instead of using additional city funds to build a new administrative structure, the city will use space in the old Leonardo and retrofit its top floor for city office space. Floor one will include space for after school programs while keeping Ken Saunders Rare Books. The second floor will house visual and folk art programs from the Utah Division of Arts and Museums.
Mendenhall said the Leonardo building will be one element of the city’s “Civic Center,” which will connect Library Square to Washington Square across 200 East.
“My hope, my vision is that this Civic Center will someday serve as our city’s Olympic legacy park, where residents and visitors can gather and play every day, while also celebrating our state’s Olympic and Paralympic legacy,” she said.
Mendenhall added the Civic Center’s vision study is now complete, and she will soon be asking the City council for $2.2 million in city capital improvement funds to pay for creating the Civic Center’s construction documents. Construction would take place after that step.
Streets
Mendenhall has made reference to creating a Civic Center before, largely in regard to her Green Loop plan. Going forward, that project likely won’t have that name, Mendenhall said Tuesday, likely a nod to the state’s move last year to usurp street planning authority from the city throughout Downtown.
“You may have heard me talk about the Green Loop before,” she said. “Chances are, you won’t hear me use that phrase much going forward.”
Instead of it being a single project, Mendenhall said Tuesday the plan will now have four distinct corridors that will be done in phases. The first phase is already done, she said, citing the 9-Line Trail along 900 South, suggesting the city is tampering expectations away from the linear parkway originally planned as part of the Green Loop.
Mendenhall also suggested the 200 East leg of the now-verboten Green Loop has been pared down to a single block, between 400 South and 500 South, far less than the more than 1 mile parkway previously planned and designed.
Next, the city will focus on 500 West. Mendenhall said the city will soon begin engagement and design work on that street.
Mendenhall’s comments cast doubt on the community-led Rio Grande Plan, which seeks to bury the rails under 500 West and bring the old Rio Grande Depot back to its former glory as a rail station.
In a text to Building Salt Lake, Blake Thomas, Mendenhall’s Senior Advisor on Real Estate and Capital Projects, said the city’s beautification efforts of 500 West doesn’t preclude the citizen-backed Rio Grande Plan. As of now, that plan would include coordination with state and federal entities, as well as land that’s not currently controlled by the city, he said.
“The 500 West beautification is a shorter-term effort on City-owned property that can move forwardd independently, providing near-term benefits to the neighborhood and helping address the need for additional green space,” Thomas told BSL. “The Rio Grande Plan is a solution the City will look at through the West-East Connections Study.”
On that infrastructure note, Mendenhall also said the city is in talks with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to make improvements to South Temple — but not until after the Salt Lake Temple’s open house, which will take place between April and October 2027.
Row 17, built by Urban Alfandre, added 32 for-sale townhomes to Salt Lake City’s Ballpark neighborhood. It is one of a relative few examples of condo-building happening amid a gush of apartment construction in Utah’s capital city.
Tax hike coming
Despite the optimistic tone overall, Mendenhall also delivered some unfortunate news for homeowners — property taxes are likely going up in the coming months.
Mendenhall has said in the past that property tax hikes were a possibility, but she put a finer point on it Tuesday.
“We know residents are feeling the strain of increased taxes on the county level,” she said. “And as I have said for years, we most likely cannot avoid a city property tax increase for the upcoming fiscal year.”
In addition to announcements over housing and infrastructure, Mendenhall also announced an existing public safety program — Project CONNECT — was yielding positive results.
The effort connects some of the city’s most arrested people with the resources they need. She cited a handful of people that were repeatedly booked into jail and released, but the cycle of recidivism for those individuals ended when they received the help they needed through this initiative. Mendenhall said the project will expand in 2026 in the hopes of reaching more people and improving public safety.
“Safety is a physical reality … but safety is also a feeling,” she said. “It extends to our parks, our streets and the public places where city life unfolds. As Salt Lake City grows, so does demand, and our responsibility to ensure those shared spaces are safe, welcoming and worthy of the people who use them.”
