Building Beyond The Ballpark: A community conversation between developers, residents, and business owners

October 15, 2025

The Ballpark community has always been inspired by the energy of the Stadium, but never exclusively defined by it. As Ballpark NEXT inches forward, the Ballpark Action Team called a community meeting to explore the projects that are taking place beyond the stadium. More than eighty individuals attended representing residents, developers, property and business owners in the neighborhood. Participants also had the chance to provide feedback on several public projects underway in the neighborhood, including the redesign of Palmer Court and Jefferson Park.

We are grateful for the participation of our moderator Taylor Anderson of Building Salt Lake and panelists Tessa Arneson with Maven, Melissa Jensen with GIV Group/Developed By Women, and Ryan Kimball of Kimball Investments. Thanks as well to Erika Carlsen for facilitating the opening and closing sessions.

Key takeaways

The neighborhood should not expect significant progress for an additional 5-10 years due to high interest rates, tariff-related price increases, and a need to see progress on the Ballpark NEXT plan.

• The City has to move quickly or interest and momentum will wane. The time is now to move on the plan - especially the stadium adaptive re-use, library and the relocation of the fire station. Clarity on what, if any, incentives for developers would also help speed redevelopment in the neighborhood.

• Home ownership is critical to the long term health of the neighborhood. This can be achieved through rent-to-own opportunities, land trusts, new state and city led funding mechanisms and other innovations.

• The Ballpark can become an even more family-oriented neighborhood, but to do so it needs child care centers, a health clinic, much expanded retail, safer streets, and more parks.

• A better balance between the deeply affordable, ‘attainable’ and market rent housing and home ownership is critical. To attract and support services like a grocery store and retail the Ballpark needs more residents with dispensable income. Density is a critical component of diversifying incomes.

• Place-building is still possible, but it will take deliberate effort. In a neighborhood with more than its share of big box stores, more secure and affordable spaces for small businesses are needed. Areas devoted to local oriented retail and housing can create these ecosystems, (see Maven, 9th + 9th and Central 9), but they need to be carefully planned and nurtured.

• The lack of green space and trees hinders progress. Many developers are considering building housing on their parcels, yet Ballpark NEXT includes hundreds of housing units on precious publicly-owned land. This needs to be reconsidered. Once green space is gone, it is gone for good. But maintenance costs of those public spaces is also a consideration. Does the City have the funds to build and maintain the re-imagined Ballpark?

• Many and diverse partnerships will be critical to progress. Shortly prior to the meeting, the Larry H. and Gail Miller Family Foundation announced an initial $5 million grant to Salt Lake City to support the implementation of Ballpark NEXT, and as part of the Foundation’s prior $22m overall commitment to assist Ballpark Neighborhood initiatives. The Foundation also separately announced the launch of the Gail Miller Utah Impact Fund. Rather than a sole focus on the Ballpark Neighborhood, this fund, which includes the partnership of Zions Bank and Intermountain Health, will direct investments to the Ballpark Neighborhood as well as other high-need areas throughout Utah. Since our meeting, the Miller Foundation has confirmed its initial pledge of $22 million in philanthropy to the neighborhood, including this $5 million initial grant, and that they remain committed to driving more interest and investment to the Ballpark Neighborhood.

  
  

Bottom line: to build the future of our neighborhood, we must:

• Advocate for steady progress on the city’s implementation of the Ballpark NEXT plan, especially the re-use of the stadium, the library and the fire station.

• Continue to build the partnerships needed to bring investments to the neighborhood, be they philanthropic, government, impact investment or private capital.

• Push hard for more green space on the stadium site to support the new neighbors we anticipate from private development.

• Deepen relationships between residents, developers, property holders and businesses so that we can create and nurture this place we love and call home.

  
  

Further Reading

Ballpark NEXT and The Gail Miller Impact Fund

Special thanks to our Urban Development Committee: Taylor Larsen, Will Henshaw, Jordan Menzel and Jacob Nutall