.....this is how the mormon church really "helps" with downtown development.....

Gateway mall is really hurting. Thx mormon church.. In reality, they could have helped redevelop this mall site, not build a huge glass tower to compete with it.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/2063536-155/slump-deepens-at-salt-lake-citys

To Church's credit, they were always in favor of cut_throat competition.....
They are what they are/

I liked that outdoor mall. I bought stuff from Barnes and Noble there. The movie theater was rather awesome with it's huge screens. It's a pity its dying thanks to the morg's expensive shopping mall designed for the uber rich...Oh well there's always online stores like Amazon!!

nonmo_1 Wrote:
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> In reality, they could have helped
> redevelop this mall site, not build a huge glass
> tower to compete with it.

Yeah, but just think how many Mormons, family members, and friends were blessed in building new and sinking old.

New and Everlasting Covenants always win.

City creek isn't for the super rich. It's the temple you can enter without being asked if you masterbate. It's the Mormon temple for everybody else.

Last time I went to City Creek I didn't see anyone buying anything. It was way too expensive. Who's going to drop some cash in Tiffiny's?
The real culprit is Wal-Mart, Target, Kohls, Penneys. People want a bargin, we're not made of money. But what I can say is that over the past few years Temple Square has lost it's charm. It's no longer a spiritual place. The "money changers" have become too obvious. It's almost sacrilege. I miss the old days.

Agree, poopstone. Recently went to Temple Square after a several years and the place just didn't look or feel the same anymore. Probably due to those monuments of self indulgence on both the north and south side of temple square (the conference center and City Creek for those who are directionally challenged).

Being directionally challenged is not hard to do in downtown SLC. It's a skyscraper canyon inside a canyon.

My mum sent my children a Christmas game one year called: Salt Lakeopoly.

A game with all the Mormon stops along the way, and lots of play money. And those "get out of jail" free cards. Anything like the Kangaroo Court??

:D

It isn't just Utahns who shop the SLC malls.

Growing up in Idaho, it was the more and most well-to-do Mormons who made pilgrimages yearly or bi-annually to buy their school clothes, spring clothes, you-name-it clothing from Salt Lake City shopping malls.

It wasn't the City Creek Mall then. It was ZCMI, and the Jewish mega department store, Auerbach's. They were the hit sensations of my youth.

My Jewish grandmother, God rest her soul, loved SLC shopping haunts, especially the antique stores downtown. She loved shopping, period. Retail therapy was her fix for whatever ailed her.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/2015 03:18PM by amyjo.

I think most malls are that way these days. The malls are usually empty or just full of kids hanging out. The food-courts seem to do well, but I don't see many people carrying bags around. There are dying malls all over the country. Too bad God didn't read up on the death of the American shopping mall before dropping billions on his mega-mall.

At least stores like Walmart, Target and Penny's etc..are affordable for the poor and middle class. Whereas the morg's mall they are not.

Or blame fickle SLC shoppers. "Ooo-ooo! Shiny New Thing!"

Eventually the next Shiny New Thing will come along, perhaps out in the 'burbs, and City Creek will wither.

I don't think this is a SLC thing, but just a people thing.

The church is grabbing the dollars that Gateway is losing. Gordon Gekko would be proud.

Although I work in one of the buildings appended to the City Creek Center, I dislike the mall and refuse to shop in it. However, it seems a little unfair to blame City Creek for the Gateway's losses. For one, the Gateway practically destroyed the ZCMI and Crossroads malls that stood where the City Creek Center now stands. I don't think downtown Salt Lake City was big enough to support Gateway without stealing from the others, and now it's just getting back what it gave. Also, the Gateway is approaching the natural lifespan of a mall anyway and will probably dwindle until someone comes along and makes it "new" again. I don't like this, since the Gateway seems to be in good shape, but I've seen several perfectly good malls decline around 15 years and I understand that's probably what the Gateway developers expected. While I agree it was inappropriate for a church to develop a multi-billion dollar mall that benefits its leaders financially, there is something to be said for maintaining the vitality of a city's downtown.

I live in eastern NC and malls aren't doing well here either. I'm sure it's not exclusive to SLC.

I've never been to the new mall, but I've been to Gateway several times. It seems to be in great shape. It's newer and in better shape than any of the indoor malls in the valley...even after renovations to Fashion Place, Valley Fair, etc...

Ugh, I agree. Poor Gateway.

Plus the Morg could have used its billions of tithing money to provide clean water to those in villages in third world countries, or provide vaccines for people in countries who are dying, or build schools for girls in the middle east. Or build a bigger and better Anthropologie and Banana Republic!

Because god knows we all need a bigger and better mall over improving the world!

Such Bullshit. It pains me to see TBMs not realizing this is what their hard earned 10% of tithing goes to. Sickening.