SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — Smith Entertainment Group has released its first renderings for a sweeping, three-block downtown entertainment district, promising new housing, shops, offices, hotels and pedestrian connections between the Delta Center and City Creek.
For the historic remnants of Japantown just west of the Salt Palace, the plans bring both opportunity and questions about what comes next.
The project is part of the broader Sports, Entertainment, Culture and Convention District planned around the Delta Center and Salt Palace.
Renderings show a reoriented Delta Center entrance, a central pedestrian walkway, new retail and office space, a hotel, a 6,000-seat Live Nation music venue and changes to the Salt Palace convention center. Plans also call for updates to Abravanel Hall and a new art museum.
Smith Entertainment Group said some of the biggest visible changes would happen along Japantown Street, also known as 100 South west of the Salt Palace.
“We’re removing these 400 feet of loading docks and we’re replacing it with retail, with office, with streetscape, with murals,” SEG chairman Ryan Smith said in a video announcing the renderings.
Japantown Street is not simply another development block. Much of Salt Lake City’s historic Japantown was displaced when the original Salt Palace was built decades ago. The Salt Lake Buddhist Temple and Japanese Church of Christ remain among the neighborhood’s longtime anchors.
Rolen Yoshinaga, a Buddhist Temple board member who works with its property group, said the temple sees a chance to plan for its own future alongside the district.
The temple owns its current building and a narrow adjacent parcel. Yoshinaga said leaders are considering whether to develop the property, possibly in a way that creates revenue for the temple.
“There’s obviously a possibility that we could engage someone to do development on the property to try and create something that is revenue-generating for the Buddhist temple, at least,” Yoshinaga said.
He said more pedestrian traffic and a street no longer dominated by loading docks could benefit the temple and the remaining Japantown area.
“The strength and the opportunity created by Smith Entertainment Group is that they could help reactivate this street,” Yoshinaga said.
Still, he said renderings do not answer every question for institutions that have operated there for over a hundred years.
“It’s a beautiful image that we’ve seen on the screen but, you know, as I always say, the devil is in the details,” Yoshinaga said.
Those details include maintaining access to religious services during construction, parking, the effect of construction vibration near the more-than-century-old Japanese Church of Christ and how concert-truck traffic could affect the street. The planned Live Nation venue is expected to host 80 to 120 concerts annually.
Yoshinaga also said the community wants to ensure longtime events, including the Obon and Nihon Matsuri festivals, can continue without conflict with construction or the entertainment district’s event schedule. The festivals are major fundraisers for the temple and bring thousands of people to the area.
SEG said demolition on the core district is expected to begin early next year. The company said the district is expected to be finished before Salt Lake City hosts the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
For Yoshinaga and the temple, the question is whether the new district can help revive the historic block while preserving access to its traditions.
