A rendering shows how the Rio Grande Plan implementation could change the look of property near the Rio Grande Depot in Salt Lake City.
(Courtesy Via Rio Grande)
Before, they knew the costs. Now they know the benefits.
Backers of the Rio Grande Plan — a sweeping proposal that would redevelop a chunk of property in downtown Salt Lake City — recently unveiled an economic analysis that indicates the project, costing $3 billion to $5 billion, would have over $12.23 billion in total economic output across construction, redevelopment and the first year of long-term operational phases.
“With these numbers in mind, and based on the $3-5 billion cost … it seems like a screaming deal to me,” Curtis Bishop, a Utah State University student involved in the analysis, said during a recent news conference about the proposal.
Via Rio Grande, a nonprofit group, and others support the proposal, which would redevelop about 75 acres of underused railyards, perhaps in time for the 2034 Winter Olympic Games.
The first phase would move rail operations — UTA’s FrontRunner, Amtrak and freight trains — from 1300 South to 400 North to a new underground “train box” along 500 West, plus reconnect rail service to the Rio Grande Depot. Phase II could occur at the same time and redevelop the areas around the underground rail into a walkable, mixed-use Rio Grande District. Phase III would involve long-term operations in the area.
Backers envision land occupied by the Salt Lake Central Station and an underused rail yard to become home to new housing, Class A offices, manufacturing and labs, schools and daycare, parks and trails, restaurants, hotels and transit extensions. Passenger service at the Central Station would be moved to the Rio Grande Depot.
While construction would be ongoing, planning likely would take one to two years, followed by initial construction over five to six years.
The economic benefit analysis completed by the Analytics Solutions Center at Utah State University indicates that the redevelopment project would generate more than 51,800 new jobs in the county over the course of demolition, construction, redevelopment and the first year of operations; $3.17 billion annual commercial output after the redevelopment phase from the creation of 13,600 permanent jobs in office, retail and hospitality in the county; 2,672 new housing units; a 15 percent increase in visitor spending, contributing $118 million annually to the county’s tourism economy; and nearly $376 million in new state and local tax revenue.
Half of the cost of $3 billion to $5 billion would come from federal grants, credits and loans, while the rest would come from city, county and state funds and tax increment financing in redevelopment. Similar successful track-burying projects have taken place in Reno, Denver and Los Angeles.
Speakers at the news conference stressed that many entities now need to participate in conversations about the project. Laurie Stringham of the Salt Lake County Council said they include the Wasatch Front Regional Council, UDOT, UTA and railroad companies.
“The exciting thing is, we’ve got numbers now to go off of, and that’s a really fun place to be,” Stringham said.
Ray Ward, a member of the Utah House of Representatives, said the economic analysis “changes the conversation.”
“If all you have is a price tag, it’s hard really to know how you move forward on it,” he said. “And public safety is an important issue and having connected communities is an important issue, but being able to afford it is an underlying thing that needs to be thought about and sorted out, and the economic analysis shows that you can afford it. This investment brings an economic return that will pay for itself and bring all these other benefits.”
Christian Lenhart, president of Via Rio Grande, said the project benefits include improving safety at currently dangerous train crossings by moving the trains underground, connecting a community currently divided by the tracks, fully utilizing the Rio Grande Depot as a train station, and developing 50 to 70 acres of underused railyard property.
The current situation “creates an undesirable area that nobody really wants to get near, that creates basically an economic firebreak between the east and west sides, and that land could be utilized,” Lenhart said.
The project would save lives, save time for people who no longer would be stopped at rail crossings, and keep Salt Lake City from falling behind other cities undertaking similar redevelopment projects, he said.
Salt Lake City Councilmember Alejandro Puy said the economic analysis considers “the nitty-gritty of the numbers,” but the unquantifiable impacts include people being able to travel smoothly through the area, no longer being late for work or picking up children from school because of delays at train crossings, which he said sometimes last for 45 minutes. Responder vehicles often are rerouted around the area to get to emergencies.
“We have to take bold moves to change this,” Puy said. “It would be a game-changer for many in my neighborhood but [also] across the state. … I think this is a great dream. Right now, it’s a dream. It’s a dream of many people here who are dreaming about something wonderful and that could change our city, our state, could heal the wounds of the freeway and train together and the impacts that they have in our communities. But this is just going to be a dream unless we have more state leaders speaking about this and talking about the impacts of this.”
Those stakeholders include landowners, Union Pacific officials and state legislators, he said, urging project supporters to “keep putting the pressure where it needs to be.”
Ward said the project would “make your life easier” if you need to get to a job in downtown Salt Lake City, need to travel across downtown or want to access some of the big entertainment projects proposed for downtown.
“This (Rio Grande) project itself sits just only in this one part of Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County, but the meaning of the project lies in how it connects that downtown area to the whole rest of the Wasatch Front,” he said.
Pedram Jahangiry, professional practice assistant professor at Utah State University and project mentor for the Analytics Solutions Center at USU, led the economic benefit analysis, which included work by two students, Bishop and Troy Wissenbach.
“We think,” Jahangiry said, “that this is going to be one of the most impactful and meaningful projects in Salt Lake City, which is going to reconnect neighborhoods and, at the same time, reimagine what this part of the city can offer.”
Details are at www.riograndeplansaltlakecity.org.