Marmalade plan flame out

 (Salt Lake Tribune) Rick Howa's five-year saga to buy and then develop an empty strip of the 300 West Marmalade district is over.

The developer failed to submit a retooled design before a recent Salt Lake City Redevelopment Agency deadline, asking instead for more time. That request, which follows a stalemate over adding housing on the block between 500 North and 600 North, was denied.

"The RDA board and the community are eager to have something on that property," RDA Executive Director D.J. Baxter said Monday. "Given the developer's request for another year's extension, it didn't seem that the development was imminent."

Howa did not respond Monday to a request for comment.

The City Council, acting as the RDA board, already had granted Howa multiple extensions since negotiations began in 2005. Howa initially planned 80 vista-rich condominiums, town homes, eateries and shops. Last fall he scrapped the housing in favor of offices, a market and a bank.

Now, Howa's $1.3 million purchase agreement is history, and the city will start over by marketing the Marmalade block to a new developer.

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