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While agonizing over losing Utah Theater, leaders in Salt Lake City opt to replace it with Main Street skyscraper

Related Topics: Salt Lake City, theater, Utah

Salt Lake City leaders changed scripts Tuesday on the century-old Utah Theater, opting to pursue talks with adjacent landowners on building a new skyscraper at the Main Street site instead of rebuilding the one-time performance hall.

Considered one of Utah’s top early-20th century venues for popular touring acts of the day, the downtown theater was purchased by the city in 2010. It has a long list of woes these days, totaling an estimated $60 million to fix. Even that price tag is probably low, city officials said.

So members of the City Council — in their role as the city Redevelopment Agency’s governing board — opted instead Tuesday to pursue negotiations with two real estate development firms, Hines and LaSalle, which own buildings to the theater’s north and south, respectively.