January 2022 | Vol. 9 Iss. 13
FREE A QUARTER-CENTURY AFTER IT WAS ‘BORN,’ CITY COMPLETES ITS NEARLY $50 MILLION ‘FACELIFT’ IN 2021 By Carl Fauver | c.fauver@mycityjournals.com
“I
f you build it, they will come.” That famous line from the 1989 film “Field of Dreams” proved true (OK, “Hollywood true”) when Kevin Costner transformed an Iowa cornfield into a baseball diamond. And perhaps more than anything else, over the past five years, that single line appears to have motivated both Salt Lake County and Taylorsville City officials, as nearly $50 million was spent constructing the Mid-Valley Performing Arts Center (MVPAC, southeast of city hall) and Centennial Plaza (southwest of city hall). “Our Centennial Plaza is everything we thought it would be and something Taylorsville residents will be able to visit and enjoy for years to come,” Mayor Kristie Overson said Oct. 15, just prior to the early evening ribbon cutting. “This will be a wonderful place for movies in the park, a farmers market, outdoor arts performances and many other activities. We are overjoyed with how it turned out.” That fall ribbon cutting was the second in 2021. The first occurred just five months earlier, on May 26 and barely 100 yards from the plaza ribbon cutting inside the new $40 million MVPAC. “We are so pleased to open the new Mid-Valley Performing Arts Center today,” Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson told dignitaries and media members that day. “This new venue is an important cultural asset in Salt Lake County and demonstrates our ongoing commitment to supporting the arts and enhancing the quality of life in our valley. Taylorsville deserves a site like this.”
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On a brisk October evening last fall, Taylorsville City officials—current and past—finally put the finishing touches on a five-year facelift project outside city hall, when they cut the ribbon on their new $3.5 million Centennial Plaza. (Carl Fauver/City Journals)
Overson addressed that May gathering as well. “It has been a thrill to watch this beautiful venue go up right outside our windows on the Taylorsville City Hall campus,” she said. “We are so proud to be a part of this project, and we look forward to welcoming visitors.” In exchange for siting the new arts center in Taylorsville, city leaders partnered with county officials in making a financial contribution and providing the venue’s land, through
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a long-term lease. The city’s participation in the partnership is valued at $5 million. Because it is a county facility, city leaders are not involved in operating MVPAC. However, from the very beginning, after the project was first announced in December 2016, city officials participated in its design, serving on various adContinued page 4
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TPD, six months later
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