Move-in plans, new restaurants mark City Creek development's progress in downtown SLC

SALT LAKE CITY (Deseret News) — Shops at the LDS Church's City Creek Center won't open until 2012, but the progress of the massive downtown development is impossible to miss.

The Regent, a 20-story residential tower, has sprung up at a rate of one floor every six days, and people are expected to move into the 90-unit Richards Court across from Temple Square in April, officials announced Tuesday morning.

"This has been a herculean effort to get to this point," said City Creek Reserve President Mark Gibbons. "The fruits of this marathon effort are beginning to show forth. … Downtown certainly has risen."

Six years after The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced plans for the project, the Salt Lake City's new skyline is finally taking shape. The nine towering cranes, meanwhile, are now eight, and the project's largest crane is expected to come down in May, Gibbons said.

The center's food court already is open for business, and a pair of Salt Lake favorites will open shop there next month. Taste of Red Iguana and Bocata, an artisan sandwich shop from the owners of Settebello Pizzeria Napoletana, will join Great Steak, McDonald's, Sbarro, Chang Chun and Suki Hana in the court.

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