Salt Lake City council approves public infrastructure district

SALT LAKE CITY — The Salt Lake City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to approve a funding tool for the downtown sports and entertainment district, which is expected to cost around $4 billion.

The Public Infrastructure District was approved by state leaders when they passed SB26 this past legislative session. Now Salt Lake City Council Chair Chris Wharton said it was the city’s job to decide whether they would get on board with this funding mechanism.

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“The state legislation states that a public infrastructure district will be created for this area,” Wharton said. “It says the council has to determine whether those conditions have been met and the council … in doing that, can set some guiding principles on how we want the Public Infrastructure District to be structured … or if there are certain restrictions that are allowed in the law that we want to place on it.”

How, not if, the District would be created

Wharton said that even if they had decided not to approve it, the Public Infrastructure District would still be created, but it would not have any input from the city.

“It’s not deciding whether or not we are going to do the PID,” Wharton said. “It’s deciding how the PID is going to happen, and whether we are going to have an active role.”

Blake Thomas, Salt Lake City mayor’s senior advisor on real estate and capitol projects, said the overall project cost they are trying to finance with public assets is now up to $1.8 billion. This comes after the state’s last minute, $300 million addition of Block 67 on Friday, which some councilmembers expressed frustration with at Tuesday’s council meeting.

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That cost is in addition to the $900 million projected to come from a special citywide sales tax, and $1.2 billion from the Smith Entertainment Group.

“Essentially [a vote for the public infrastructure district] really is the city approving Smith Entertainment Group’s creation of the vehicle in which all the debt for the sports district can be consolidated,” Thomas explained.

The county still has to vote before the April 15 deadline, so construction plans can get underway.

“It will be a critical or key step in the implementation and the beginning of construction of the broader district,” Thomas said.

A road trip, with many possible drivers

At the city council meeting Wharton described this downtown project like a road trip, with a lot of different players in the car. They may all share the same vision of the destination, but how they get there will be up for debate.

“We’re not in the drivers seat fully on this issue but I really want to stay in the vehicle,” Wharton said. “I want to stay on board because I believe that there are a lot of other opportunities that we are going to have to drive and  I want to preserve those options for our residents.”