<B> Salt Lake Upgrades Rooms</B>
By Robert Selwitz
With an eye on convention center expansion and the 2002 winter Olympics, Salt Lake City has accelerated efforts to significantly upgrade its hotel room stock. Leading the way among planned new projects is the 777-room Little America Grand--which also will include 350 suites--set to open in 2001.
Adjacent to the present 850-room Little America Hotel & Suites, the combined properties, located four blocks south of the Convention Center, will offer more than 1,600 rooms--making it Utah's largest hotel complex. The Grand also will feature 24,000 square feet of meeting space, including a 13,000-sq.-ft. ballroom.
Another major entry is Klimpton Hotels' conversion of the historic Continental Bank Building into what the Salt Lake Tribune called the city's "first large boutique hotel." The $32 million project, to be called the Hotel Monaco, will create a property of about 225 rooms, scheduled to make its debut next summer.
The Hotel Monaco will join other properties of the same name in Denver, San Francisco and Seattle. Like its counterparts, it will include an upscale restaurant with a high-profile chef.
Ocean Properties also is about to break ground on a 375-room property close to the city center. Scheduled to open in September 1999, the hotel will feature 30 suites, a concierge floor and 6,500 square feet of meeting space. According to Dianne Binger, vice president of sales and marketing at the Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau, the city "absolutely needs more first-class hotel rooms. We have 16,000 within the Salt Lake area, but downtown commitable rooms number around 4,400. We have a lot of limited-service properties and they do a great job, but they don't help attract additional conventions."
In other city news, an ambitious, length-of-the-city light rail system is expected to debut by March, 2000. The first, north/south phase of the $312 million system called TRAX will move passengers along a 15-mile corridor with nearly 20 stops en route. As currently planned, the route will extend from the Delta Center and Temple Square area to the Sandy Civic Center. A second east/west sector will link Salt Lake International Airport with the downtown area and the University of Utah.
Though no debut date is scheduled for the second phase, the system clearly must be operational by 2002, when the University will be the location of the Olympic Village.