Three Sites are Frontrunners for Broadway-Style Theatre

May 08, 2008 by Jeff Robinson

(KCPW News) Three locations have emerged as frontrunners for Salt Lake City's proposed Broadway Theatre: the old Utah Theatre and the former Newspaper Agency Corporation building on Main, and the parking lot across Broadway from the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center. Bill Becker, chairman of the Downtown Theatre Action Group, said choosing the Utah Theatre site would also benefit the nearby Capitol Theatre.

"It would enable us to preserve the remaining historic elements of the old Utah Theatre, and it also is contiguous to the Capitol Theatre," said Becker. "It would enable us to deal with some of the load-in and load-out problems of the Capitol Theatre and address some of the other backstage problems that they've got there because of the constraints of the loading dock."

The Utah Theatre and NAC sites also benefit from being just south of the proposed City Creek Center, Becker said.

Another advantage of the NAC building is who owns it.

"The NAC building is owned or controlled by Property Reserve, an affiliate of the LDS Church, so the site assembly may be relatively easier," said Becker. "The city also owns some of the property in that block."

The NAC building is also adjacent to a 600-car parking structure that could accommodate theatre patrons.

But if the city chose to build a theatre in the parking lot across from the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center on Broadway, it would have to replace the 200 spots that the center already uses at that site.

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