Rio Grande District Phase One Public Improvements

At a glance

Based on auto-generated captions; names and details may be misheard.

What: CRA staff update on phase one of the Rio Grande District vision plan on the west edge of downtown (the CRA owns about 11 acres): two new streets, a rebuilt 300 South as a shared "festival street", a plaza called Arts Alley South and backbone utilities, at 40 percent design.
Where it stands: information only, no vote. Estimated cost is about $14.5 million including a 20 percent contingency. Identified sources total about $13.7 million, leaving a gap of just under $1 million (about $820,000 per the board packet after electrical costs were added; an earlier page showed $730,000).
Next: value engineering, possible reallocated CRA funds or city money, a city bond process, and a possible shared parking district with the transit agency. Staff hope to solicit developers for two north-block sites within a couple of months.

About $5 million of CRA funds are allocated, a bond of about $7.6 million is being pursued (revenue bond repaid from tax increment in the housing and transit reinvestment zone), and about $1 million may come from the city impact fee plan.
Staff said the bond is prudent rather than maximal and does not count phase two or future ground lease revenue.
Carlsen noted the city's general fund balance was 11.14 percent and urged care with fund-balance fixes. The chair asked staff to look beyond city money to local businesses, philanthropy and other partners, and to come back with ideas.
Staff plan ground leases rather than sales and district management fees, with board approval to reinvest in the district.

USA Climbing is the anchor tenant; it is fundraising and in building permit review, and hopes to break ground in spring 2027. Public utilities would be sequenced with its construction so the streets are not built to nowhere.
Puy raised safety concerns about shared space for cars, bikes and pedestrians and asked that the design fit Vision Zero. Napier-Pearce asked why not go fully pedestrian; staff said activity on the street helps attract ground-lease tenants and circulation matters.
Coordination continues with the transit agency's redevelopment of Salt Lake Central Station, the University of Utah (which controls the historic depot) and the city's 500 West project. Another member said the project should not become gentrification without addressing homelessness.

About 34 minutes across 1 meeting (from transcript timestamps; approximate).

Meeting	Minutes
2026-10-13 - Community Reinvestment Agency	34

2026-10-13 - Community Reinvestment Agency - Staff briefing on phase one design, cost estimate and funding gap; questions on the gap, USA Climbing timeline, street safety and bond capacity. No vote. About 2 minutes of audio were lost on the video broadcast and are not captioned.