City Creek Center: A helping hand or a fat wallet?

Rendering of condo view by City Creek Living.com

By the late 1990's, business at the Crossroads Plaza Mall and the LDS church-owned ZCMI Center Mall had slowed considerably.  In 2001, the new Gateway Mall opened a few blocks away, luring even more consumers away.

The LDS church purchased the Crossroads Plaza Mall in 2003, and then in 2006 announced their plan:  A 20-acre development project that would replace the two dying shopping malls and combine them into one center, offering state of the art retail, office, and residential space.

The project is estimated to cost $1.5 Billion dollars, but rumors are strong that the actual cost has spiraled well beyond that.

Proponents say it will revitalize downtown Salt Lake City, bringing in new life and new business while ensuring property around LDS headquarters remains vibrant.

Some are pessimistic, though.  With the recession, other malls throughout Salt Lake and Utah valley have been struggling or closing, and various building projects have been put on hold.  If the City Creek Center struggles against the economy and the competition from nearby Gateway, the Church may ultimately lose their investment.

Critics fear it will turn downtown into a small Vatican City, where the church will own a significant amount of business, and even some streets would be privately owned property where any regulations the church makes could be enforced, even down to a dress code.

Original plans for the shopping center mandated that stores would be closed on Sunday, and alcohol could not be sold at all.  When restaurants fought back, the church eventually consented to allow some alcohol sales.  (This was a victory for the restaurants, but begs the question: was the church more concerned about money or their values?)

Plans for the center include a "sky bridge" that would allow pedestrians to cross over Main Street, a feature that sent many local businesses into an uproar.  With shoppers able to pass right over private shops on the street, they fear their businesses will suffer.

Two 10-story residential towers called "Richards Court" will offer 2 bedroom condo's for $2 Million.  A studio will run for half a million.  The reason for the high price tag is, in part, for the fantastic view of the Salt Lake City Temple, just across the street.  Evidently, it's a view worth paying for, as many of the condo's have already been sold.  There is something ironic about reveling in the view of your sacred temple from inside your $2 million dollar condominium, but there it is.

With only the wealthy able to live there, the original goals of opening up downtown to artists, students, and a variety of cultures may have been abandoned.

Critics can't understand why a church would be so heavily invested in a commercial enterprise.  Why build condo's for millionaires and a giant shopping center when the church could be doing something more Christ-like with that money instead?

The Church has made it clear that tithing isn't being used in this project.  Instead, the money comes from the for-profit businesses that it owns (which were originally purchased with tithing) and loans.  So in this sense, the LDS Church could be divided into two branches:  the religion, and the corporation.

A little over 10 years ago, TIME magazine reported that these two divisions and everything the church owned totaled assets of over $30 Billion.  We can only assume the church is worth more than that today.  At that time, TIME said that "If it were a corporation, its estimated $5.9 billion in annual gross income would place it midway through the FORTUNE 500, a little below Union Carbide and the Paine Webber Group but bigger than Nike and the Gap."

Why would a church bother itself with a powerful, for-profit, corporate arm?

It is deeply ingrained into LDS belief that these are, after all, the latter-days.  Christ's return is imminent, and before that happens there will be catastrophe.

Assuming that Church leaders believe the Church is true and are acting honestly, I believe they're simply preparing for this time.  Much of what the church owns is property, farms, and cattle ranches.  They want private control of land, food, and supplies so that when those final days come, they will be ready.  They also believe that when Christ returns, it will usher in a new world, and that The One True Church will be the one to lead it.  Having ties with businesses, investments, property, and technology will be essential when that time comes.  Christ will be able to step in as the head of the only multi-billion dollar organization that survives the End of Times and can begin his 1,000 year reign over the Earth.

City Creek Center and its million dollar condo's is a long term investment that would, presumably, be used to fund even more preparation for Christs return.  So the good news is that we don't have anything to worry about for at least another 50 years.  The City Creek Center isn't the sort of project you'd fund if you were expecting the world to end anytime soon.

Or, it's possible that the Church is merely sliding further into a corporate role with all the tax benefits of being fronted by a religion. 

And until Christ returns, there really isn't a way to decide which it is.

Email Jonathan: slcfreethinking@gmail.com