Speaking on Business: Downtown Alliance

This is Derek Miller, Speaking on Business. Downtown Salt Lake City is coming into its most consequential decade in more than a century and the Downtown Alliance just released the report that proves it. Dee Brewer, executive director of the Downtown Alliance, joins us with more. Dee Brewer: Here's a number I love: last year, people spent more than thirty million days downtown. I’m not talking about drive-throughs. Thirty million times, someone chose to spend real time in the heart of our capital city — at a Mammoth game, the Farmers Market, the symphony or one of our four hundred restaurants, bars and shops. Our new Downtown Economic Benchmark Report tells that story. Venue attendance hit an all-time high of 4.7 million. Downtown's residential population is up 63% since 2019. And ten billion dollars is committed to reshape downtown this decade with a new sports and entertainment district, a rebuilt Salt Palace and 20 other projects mapped on the road to the 2034 Olympic Games. Now, buildings don't make downtown. People do. And downtown vibrancy is definitely crowdsourced — it's created every time you choose to shop, dine, cheer or stroll a sidewalk downtown. What is your favorite part of our Capital City? Come feel the energy of Downtown Salt Lake. Derek Miller: Every great city has a great downtown. Ours is being built one choice at a time – by you. Read the full Economic Benchmark Report at DowntownSLC.org. I'm Derek Miller, with the Salt Lake Chamber, Speaking on Business. Originally aired: 8/17/26