Took grand kids to Gateway Mall in SLC. First time I really had a chance to see the mall. Very beautiful, very well developed and very colorful. I liked it.

How does this mall compare to the Church Mall? Which mall will be one that draws the most customers. I find it hard to believe that SLC has 2 great malls in the down town area so close together and they will both make money.

Toss in the "Tolley Station" location that people talk about. There is only so much money for people to spend. So will the Church Mall attract customers from the other two locations?

I am having trouble getting my head around the Church mall. Went to Church on Sunday in Utah and not a word of helping people in Japan. It was like there was not crisis there.

Have they said what stores will be in the City Creek mall? The Gateway doesn't have large, anchor department stores (like Dillards, Nordstroms, JC Penney, etc.), so if the City Creek mall has a couple of those they should do OK. Same goes for Trolley Square... it's mostly small boutiques and restaurants. I'm just ready to have a downtown again.

I was downtown last week at Symphony Hall, which is right across West Temple from the City Creek project. It looks pretty nice.

As to how 2 malls (3 if you count Trolley Square) in such close proximity expect to make money, well, that's the million dollar question, isn't it?

Where the current City Creek project is now located used to house 2 malls, directly across Main Street from one another: Crossroad's Plaza and the ZCMI Center.

At first, both malls had different vendors. Specifically, they had different anchor stores, so there was quite a bit of back and forth between the 2 malls.

Over time, however, ZCMI began losing money. And its unique vendors. They went belly up and sold the mall. But it didn't really help.

The difference now is that Gateway lies to the west of City Creek. The bit of city between the two developments used to be some of the most rundown, scariest parts of SLC. With the new developments, the area around these two developments has seen significant improvement.

The intention is to house different, and hopefully unique, vendors which will draw people between the 2 malls. You can quite easily walk the distance between the two developments, or you can hop on Trax and ride for free (both are located in the free fare zone).

It's also important to understand that the ZCMI Center and Crossroad's Plaza pretty much killed the rest of the small businesses on Main Street. Since City Creek has been under construction, new vendors have come to Main Street and are doing pretty well. The question is, once City Creek opens, will it re-kill Main Street or help it? No one knows.

As a resident and tax payer in SLC, I don't have the luxury of hoping City Creek will fail. However, in that they won't be open on Sunday, they will lose customers and revenue among the "gentile" population that likes to shop on Sundays, due to the smaller crowds.

As much as I'd love to see the church lose a bundle of cash I don't really want to see the downtown area take the hit.

I guess the best outcome would be a vibrant downtown but a huge downturn in tithing because the members are pissed about the mall. Yeah, that's what I'll hope for.

Stunted

Thanks.

Still have troubling knowing a Christian Church is spending money on malls rather than humanitian care or helping members in the Church who are old and need help, ill or in need of help.

My SP thinks that the money for the mall is just a small amount of the money the Church has. He sees nothing wrong with them spending their investment money.

Well, to be honest TSCC is "Christian" in that they talk about Christ, have pictures of Christ, and claim to speak on Christ's behalf... but make no mistake, the organization of the "church" does NOT follow Christ's teachings. Some of the members still do, but they tend to not fit in very well with the rank and file mormons... The rest follow the teachings of "the church" under the assumption that it represents christ.

The mall concept is so dead. I think there is a real hunger for the traditional main street experience again and Salt Lake City at one time had a great main street. If they would have just put the diagonal parking in fixed up the old stores and fonts and put in interesting and unique shops and restaurants it would have been a hit. They ruined main street in the 1970's and it never recovered.

Malls used to be a concept to get you out of the weather and now they are outdoors anyways. At least with the old main street you could park next to where you were shopping.

I hate the fact that the morg own so much of downtown. And besides that I can't imagine myself patronizing a business inside the new mall.

I'd love to see the new mall fail, and I expect to see it fail, but it's going to put another nail in the coffin of downtown. Poor SLC.

I would probably check out the new mall if I were in Salt Lake but I wouldn't want to buy anything - I'd feel like I was supporting something shady. Spending all that money on a real estate development instead of helping the poor and needy really bugs me.

At Gateway you have to pay for parking.

Rumor says at the City Creek Mall you get FREE parking with a temple recommend due to your tithing receipts.

If you are on Church welfare (GASP) then are not allowed on City Creek Property (honor system) but have to shop at DI and Bishop's storehouse.

GA's and their families get to shop when the mall is closed, via underground tunnels, and pay by invoice.

Stake Presidents get a 5% discount.

Now General Conference will be four times per year.



Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2011 09:25PM by openeyes.