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General Growth moves ahead on Utah urban center
The $552 million redevelopment of Cottonwood Mall in Holladay, Utah, is rapidly moving forward. The project represents a shift towards mixed-use development by General Growth Properties (GGP), the nation’s second largest mall owner (see the June 2007 issue).
Cottonwood Mall closed in October with the exception of a Macy’s store that is incorporated into the new plan by Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company. Since July, when the plan was proposed, the city has changed its general plan to call for mixed use on the site, added a new zoning category, and rezoned the site, according to Paul Allred, the Holladay community development director. The approval of the master plan is expected in November. “GGP wants to get approvals quickly, and the city is anxious for them to redevelop the site,” he explains. Subdivision approvals and financial negotiations with the city remain to be completed prior to vertical construction on the site.
The redevelopment was rumored for a long time because the mall has been in decline. “Ten or fifteen years ago this was a regional draw,” Allred says. “Now there are bigger malls on Interstate interchanges that have eclipsed it.”
GGP is negotiating to set up a tax-increment financing (TIF) district to pay for an estimated $65 million in infrastructure for the project and $10 million in off-site improvements, according to Spencer Angerbauer, developer with GGP. The difference between that amount and what the development would be paying — the “increment” — could then be applied to pay off the infrastructure bonds, he explained. In the meantime, the city benefits from sales tax and the “halo effect” of rising property values in the area, he says. Talk of the site’s redevelopment already caused nearby property values to rise, according to a recent article in The Salt Lake Tribune.
Development program
The plan calls for an estimated 534 residential units, 700,000 square feet of retail and entertainment, 100,000 square feet of office space, and potential civic uses on the 57-acre site. An urban center with plazas and greens, varied architecture, and 17 acres of open space are included in the plan. The path of a stream will be moved. Demolition of the mall is expected to begin by the end of the year.
GGP plans to have all commercial aspects of the project open by the fall of 2010, with the residential blocks phased in over the next four to 10 years, depending on the market, the Tribune reports.
Although the urban center represents a dramatic change for GGP, the company is not giving up on its enclosed malls. GGP owns Fashion Place, a thriving regional mall, just five miles away from Cottonwood. The urban center and mall will serve different markets in the future, Angerbauer explains.
This article is from the December 2007 issue of New Urban News
Plan courtesy of David Carrico and Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co.
A main street and urban center are proposed on the site of a defunct shopping mall in Utah owned by retail titan General Growth Properties.
