The Salt Lake City Council created a district to finance the redevelopment of the Delta Center, home to professional basketball and hockey, as well as other downtown projects.
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The Salt Lake City Council approved a convention center public infrastructure district that would issue bonds to redevelop a professional sports arena and develop other downtown projects.
Ahead of the council's unanimous vote late Tuesday to create the district and appoint a five-member board, some council members expressed concern.
"I do think that this investment of public dollars could be very, very beneficial to our city," Council Member Darin Mano said. "I also think there's a lot of ways that it can go wrong."
In 2024, the Utah Legislature approved up to $900 million of bonds to finance the renovation of the Delta Center, the home of the National Basketball Association's Utah Jazz, to accommodate a National League Hockey team. The Arizona Coyotes became the Utah Hockey Club last year.
During this year's legislative session, lawmakers passed a bill to create a convention center reinvestment zone, allowing the use of certain state and local sales tax revenue generated within the zone, as well as incremental increases in property taxes to pay off bonds that would be issued to finance renovation and expansion of the Salt Lake County-owned Salt Palace convention center and other facilities within the zone.
Under the resolution passed by the city council, senior and subordinate lien bonds issued by the district will be backed by revenue from a 0.5% sales tax increase approved by the council in October that is expected to generate about $1.2 billion over 30 years, as well as 76% of the city's portion of a 0.2% county sales tax.
An agreement last year between Salt Lake City and Smith Entertainment Group, the owner of the sports teams and Delta Center, allocated up to $525 million in bond proceeds for renovation to the arena and up to $375 million for a sports, entertainment, culture, and convention district.
Delta Center, which was acquired by Smith when he bought the Jazz in 2020, opened in 1991 and has a seating capacity of 18,206 for basketball games. There are fewer seats for hockey games and many of the views are obstructed.
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