After years of planning, Salt Lake City now has a path forward for the future of Japantown.
The Salt Lake City Community Reinvestment Agency (CRA) is proceeding with work to overhaul the streetscape of 100 South between 200 West and 300 West.
The work comes amid intense pressure in the surrounding area: Smith Entertainment Group is underway with a multi-billion dollar effort to revitalize the area surrounding the Delta Center, which includes Japantown.
With a price tag of just over $11 million, the plans detailed Tuesday show the street will be rebuilt with a midblock crossing and expanded pedestrian walkways, along with up to 50 cherry trees that will line both sides of the street. The streetscape improvements would be the leading single cost for the project, as that aspect would account for nearly $4.9 million.
Marcus Lee, a project coordinator for the CRA, explained to the Salt Lake City Council on Tuesday that one of the big requests from the Japantown community was to make the street flat, which has been an issue in the past.
“Currently, 100 South is not ideal for hosting festivals,” Lee said. “The crown of the road is relatively steep, and there are a lot of challenges the community has while hosting their festivals.”
Other roadway improvements would include preserving street parking and potentially adding electrical access for vendors to access during festivals and other events.
Lee said that another big expense for the project would be the sheer amount of utility work needed for the site. According to the staff report, “800 linear feet of 8-inch water line, 800 linear feet of fiber optic line, and 1,600 linear feet of underground power would need to be relocated,” as part of the street’s reconstruction. The total for utility work would cost around $1.76 million.
A street entry marker proposed for Japantown in Salt Lake City. Image via Salt Lake City
New art is also a notable component of the redesign. The CRA, the Salt Lake City Arts Council and the community are working on designing a mural for the Multi-Ethnic Senior Housing Tower, which is just south of the street. That mural could be finished as soon as next spring, the staff report says, though much of that timing would depend on weather.
The CRA currently has allocated over $436,000 toward Japantown public art, the staff report says. Lee said the tentative cost of the mural would be between $50,000 and $75,000.
Though they didn’t take action during the Tuesday meeting, council members overall seemed ready to move forward on streetscape improvements, especially considering how the planning for Japantown improvements began back in 2018.
Council Member Darin Mano, the CRA board chair and a fourth-generation Japanese American who has long pushed for revitalizing the area, thanked the city and the community for the efforts to get this far.
“It means a lot to me personally, for obvious reasons, but I know that it has been a big effort, and it’s something that, if I think back through the whole history of Japantown and Salt Lake City, but also the recent history of what has happened and the actions that we have taken as a city in this specific area, I’m so, so grateful,” Mano said.
The recent council action Mano referred to is the ongoing efforts to create the outdoor entertainment district between Delta Center and the Salt Palace Convention Center and overhaul the convention center as a whole, part of which is located on the north side of the street in discussion.
It’s still unclear exactly how the Salt Palace plans would impact the overall Japantown streetscape, but Lee said the city expects the Smith Entertainment Group (SEG) to reveal plans for the entertainment district next summer. SEG announced in September they had selected architects and construction partners for the project.
Council Member Alejandro Puy said was concerned with the way CRA documents stated the entertainment district construction wouldn’t impact the Japantown placemaking elements, saying there’s no way of knowing that as of now. But either way, Puy said it’s the city’s responsibility to do something sooner rather than later, adding, “the soul of the neighborhood is this street.”
The unknowns associated with the entertainment district and Salt Palace overhaul is what gave council members pause on fully moving forward with funding the entire project. However, Mano and other council members agreed that aspects of the Japantown overhaul could proceed in the meantime, like the mural on the Multi-Ethnic Senior Housing Tower and purchasing the cherry trees.
Funding for the overall project hasn’t been entirely sorted out yet, though Mano said the timing could work out to fund all of the document costs in the next fiscal year.
The staff report notes that 10% of the annual tax increment collected from Block 67, which is located on the southwest corner of Japantown, would be set aside for right-of-way improvements for Japantown Street.
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