Will $200,000 help lure firms to Main St. in Salt Lake?
Those historic buildings on Salt Lake City’s Main Street are scaring businesspeople away, David Oka says. The city’s Redevelopment Agency chief has an idea to lure would-be shopkeepers into his downtown: a monetary carrot. By Diane Urbani Deseret News staff writer The RDA can now pay for studies to determine what kinds of seismic upgrades and other renovations are needed on particular buildings, thanks to a $200,000 newly approved allocation. The Salt Lake City Council, acting as the RDA board, agreed with Oka that retailers eyeing Main Street needed such an incentive. “Each study would cost between $20,000 and $30,000,” Oka said, and “$30,000 would make my life very easy” by helping bring tenants into Main’s many vacant storefronts. Since Oka took his city job seven months ago, he’s looked for novel ways of ministering to Main’s ills. As stores closed and Olympic tenants skipped town, he talked with scores of retailers. “A lot of them wouldn’t even look at Main Street,” fearing prohib
