Future of the Old Smith’s Building
I am happy to announce that the old Smith’s Building is now under contract to be purchased and redeveloped. The building was previously under contract with another developer, but that purchase fell apart and the building has sat vacant while we have been working to attract a new buyer/developer. This has taken some time, but has been successful. The developer is a partnership that includes one of the top retail developers in the US and a ...local partner: Mountain West. This partnership recently developed the aesthetically beautiful and highly-successful Oquirrh Mountain Marketplace (114th South/Bangerter Hwy). They have incredible experience in the retail market, and have relationships with all of the top stores & restaurants we hope to attract. See the flyer of the Oquirrh Mountain project for the types of stores they brought to the development: http://astro.mtnwest.com/…/72947/…/0/flyer/Flyer-72947-0.pdf
The developer will be taking down approximately 1/3 of the building to create additional parking, and will then remodel the remaining building into three large retail spaces. I think this is a better plan that dividing it into approximately 8-12 spaces in the previous development plan. We want the remodeled building to be beautiful and attractive, and the facade will be re-done. The City will be contributing some Community Development Area (CDA) funds to incentivize this redevelopment of the existing store by participating in the facade work and building remodel. Big thanks to Weber County and other taxing entities for assisting us in developing the CDA (Matthew G Bell, Kerry W. Gibson and Commissioner Ebert). The developer also intends to add a new pad across 2550 North from Subway.
The developer has identified roughly half of the tenants, and is working to identify the remainder. We cannot yet release the names of any tenants, but hope to be able to do so within the next month. I met with one of the major tenants on Friday and think it will be a great and practical fit for our city. There are some exciting discussions in the works for remaining tenants. Please remember that retail development is a private-market driven process—not a government-driven process. While we are working hard to help with the process and will use the CDA to incentivize the development, the decision of which stores will come is ultimately made by the private market, because a project like this represents significant investment and risk by the private market. In a free market, the government role is secondary and supporting. Also, please note that the process is slow and always involves delays, changes, new plans, etc. Please be patient and know that we are working hard on making something awesome happen here, and in other commercial areas of the city.
