Ryan Smith and Smith Entertainment Group released the first renderings for a three-block downtown Salt Lake entertainment district. The plans show a reoriented Delta Center entrance, a central pedestrian walkway, and changes along Japantown Street west of the Salt Palace.
The project sits inside the broader Sports, Entertainment, Culture and Convention District planned around the Delta Center and Salt Palace. SEG said demolition on the core district is expected to begin early next year, with the district expected to be finished before the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
Japantown Street plans
Smith said the plan would remove 400 feet of loading docks and replace them with retail, office, streetscape, and murals. The renderings also show 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.
SEG said some of the biggest visible changes would come along Japantown Street, also known as 100 South west of the Salt Palace. Much of Salt Lake City’s historic Japantown was displaced when the original Salt Palace was built decades ago, and the area now sits at the edge of a major downtown redevelopment zone.
Salt Lake Buddhist Temple
Rolen Yoshinaga, a Buddhist Temple board member, said the Salt Lake Buddhist Temple sees a chance to plan for its own future alongside the district. He said the temple owns its current building and a narrow adjacent parcel, and leaders are considering whether to develop that property in a way that creates revenue for the temple.
Yoshinaga said more pedestrian traffic and a street no longer dominated by loading docks could benefit the temple and the remaining Japantown area. He said, “The strength and the opportunity created by Smith Entertainment Group is that they could help reactivate this street,” and added, “We’re removing these 400 feet of loading docks and we’re replacing it with retail, with office, with streetscape, with murals,” referring to Smith’s plan.
Access and festival schedules
Yoshinaga also said the renderings do not answer every question for institutions that have operated there for over a hundred years. The temple wants to maintain access to religious services during construction and address parking, construction vibration near the Japanese Church of Christ, and concert-truck traffic on the street.
He said, “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,” as the community looks for a construction plan that lets Obon and Nihon Matsuri continue without conflict with the district’s event schedule. The practical test now is whether access, parking, and festival timing can work while the core district is built and after it opens.
