Community Development

The Downtown Alliance was created by downtown commercial property owners to invigorate downtown and promote it as the regional center for commerce, culture and entertainment. 

The Alliance supports the proposed investments by Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, and Smith Entertainment Group to build what they have described as a “downtown experience [that] will serve as the state’s anchor for arts, culture, sports, and entertainment.”

These ambitious investments build on the billions of dollars that our stakeholders have already invested downtown. 

Downtown Alliance data shows that sports, arts and entertainment are major drivers in the growing downtown economy and they are enjoyed by patrons across the region.

In our conversations with downtown stakeholders–property owners, arts and entertainment producers, destination marketers, and merchants–they have made these points: 

1. They want entertainment district development efforts to succeed. 

2. Stakeholders want the new entertainment assets to be integrated with the existing commercial nodes and arts assets that are fueling the downtown economy. An entertainment district cannot stand alone.

3. Planning should consider the myriad patron groups that infuse a city with energy and the variety of uses that attract those patrons downtown, day and night. 

4. They want the planning process to incorporate transportation stakeholders (City, State and UTA) to ensure optimal access to downtown and through downtown.

5. Our stakeholders want the planning and execution of these investments to be done collaboratively. Our stakeholders have experience developing and operating downtown and they want to bring that experience to a holistic plan for vitalizing the capital city. Downtown stakeholders want to shape their investments and development plan to serve the larger, collaborative vision.

We urge leaders at the City, the County, and Smith Entertainment Group to engage downtown stakeholders in planning and developing entertainment assets downtown.