Utah’s Greek Orthodox community waiting on federal government before renovating historic cathedral

SALT LAKE CITY — Nearly six years since it sustained major damage during the 2020 earthquake, renovations at the historic Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Salt Lake City still haven’t begun.

Parish leadership said FEMA had agreed to help fund 90% of the renovation project; however, the longest government shutdown in history delayed the construction, which was supposed to begin this spring.

“Unfortunately, the shutdown really, really messed everything up,” said George Karahalios, parish council president of the Greek Orthodox Church of Greater Salt Lake. “FEMA normally takes anywhere from two to three months to review everything. Once they’ve reviewed everything, then [it] has to go to the city for permitting. So that process could take anywhere from six to eight months.”

However, Karahalios said because of the shutdown, renovations are behind by about four months.

When the earthquake struck in 2020, church leaders immediately noticed several cracks appear throughout the cathedral. They called in structural engineers, who deemed the building safe enough to enter.

“But as they got into it, they realized there was structural damage and that we do qualify for FEMA funding for the cathedral,” Karahalios said.

They gathered all their documents and information and contacted FEMA in April of that same year. Since that time, they’ve been involved in meetings over the past six years with FEMA officials, architects, structural engineers and more.

“Once the structural part of it was done — which took almost two years to do — then we had to actually get a qualified architect to start doing the drawings for the cathedral, because it’s going to require major, major renovation inside,” Karahalios explained.

He said the current plans call for a complete tear down of the interior of the building — stripping down all the walls and removing everything that’s inside. When renovations are complete, the building will have shrunk by roughly six inches on the inside due to the additional wall supports that will be added.

As a result of the construction, Karahalios said they’ll have to remove several pieces of iconography that have adorned the cathedral’s interior walls for years.

In total, the project is expected to take 18 months to complete.

Karahalios said they were able to secure funding from FEMA grants and that it comes in stages.

“For example, we secured the funding for the structural part of it, structural engineers,” he explained. “Then we had to secure the funding for the architectural plans, and then the project’s been approved for the long term, which is the last phase of it — the construction phase.”

The only problem, Karahalios said, is that they don’t have the total costs at this point.

“We don’t know what the final cost is going to be on everything yet, until we get a contractor in to take a look at everything, review the plans and then give us the estimated bid on it,” he said.

What’s delaying construction?

The longest government shutdown in history delayed the process, throwing a wrench into plans that originally called for construction to begin in March 2026.

Now, it looks like construction might not begin until August 2026. At that point, it’s close enough to the annual Greek Festival that church leadership may want to push out the construction a bit longer, according to Karahalios.  The festival is traditionally held in the second week of September, and the 2026 festival will be the 50th one.

But all of that, still up in the air.

“It depends on when FEMA has finished evaluating all the architects and their plans, what they’re going to approve and what they’re not going to approve,” Karahalios said.

He believes that the federal government will approve 99% of the plans that are currently outlined. However, a few upgrades to the cathedral might be more questionable, like an upgrade of the existing HVAC system.

“Do they want us to put new ones in? Do they want us to just put the old ones in and just upgrade the old ones later? You know, we just don’t know yet,” Karahalios said.

He said things like that are “holding us up right now.”

Besides the federal government, the State of Utah also kicked in to help fund the renovation.

“We were fortunate enough to be able to lobby the legislature, and we got $1 million from them to do the project,” Karahalios said.

He said the money wasn’t delivered all at once but is a kind of rotating fund that allows them to draw from it as they complete portions of the project. Once they cap out at $1 million, then the state funding will cease.

That $1 million will be helpful, but it might end up being a rather small drop in the water of the overall costs; estimates right now show the renovation project costing anywhere from $25 to $30 million.

Karahalios worries that if they don’t act fast, prices will continue to rise and construction companies will become booked with other projects.

“With the Olympics coming into town, if we don’t get this thing finalized soon — with FEMA and the city — prices are going to skyrocket because people are going to start building … So that’s my biggest fear, that we don’t get moving on it quick enough to beat that big rush that’s going to happen here in Salt Lake with the Olympics.”

While the Greek Orthodox community waits for FEMA to continue the process, they’re asking smaller donors to step up and pitch in what they can.

During the renovation process, Karahalios said they’re still trying to figure out where the current congregation will go for services. He said they have a few options, including meeting with another congregation at Prophet Elias Church in Holladay or building a makeshift church within the cultural center next to the Holy Trinity Cathedral.

Once renovations are complete and the cathedral fully reopens, Karahalios said they’ll shift focus towards a new community center next to the church. The hope is to have it up and running in time for the 2034 Winter Olympics.

“We’re looking at how we’re going to raise the money to build this community center in time for the Olympics,” he said. “It would be really interesting to at least have, you know, one of the cauldrons be in this new Greektown plaza and community center.”

With a new community center and Greek plaza, Karahalios said it would be a really neat thing to have the Olympic flame come from Olympia, Greece and make its way to Salt Lake City’s historic Greek town.

“I don’t know that we’re going to be able to do it in nine years, but we’ll see,” he said. “It’s going to be quite the endeavor.”

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