Leadership, plans for ‘restoration district’ near Utah Fairpark becoming more clear
Sep 25, 2024, 6:47 PM | Updated: 8:08 pm
SALT LAKE CITY – The potential future of a Major League Baseball team in Utah means future land development in a Salt Lake City neighborhood. Now we know who’s leading the district in charge of it.
The renderings of what a future home for a potential MLB team could look like have been released to the public, but perhaps less known, Benn Buys is the man in charge of overseeing the land development to make it happen. Currently, he is the deputy executive director of Utah’s Island Port Authority. Starting Oct. 17, he’ll become the first executive director of the Utah Fairpark Area Investment and Restoration District.
“This is really a once-in-a-career type of opportunity for me,” Buys said.
Bringing Major League Baseball to Utah isn’t his first or only goal, buy said in a Zoom interview Wednesday. He said his task is to transform the land into hotels, housing and commercial space.
“We want to have an area that allows for the type of development that’s going to be attractive that’s going to help bring investment, not only directly in the district, but in surrounding areas to the Fairpark area,” Buys said.
A homeless woman washes her face after filling an empty Coke bottle with water from the Jordan River in Salt Lake City on Friday, March 22, 2024. The bridge over the river on North Temple at the west end of the Utah State Fairpark is the epicenter of the drug trade in the area. It is also the very spot on the river the LHM Company plans to clean up and incorporate into a riverwalk as part of its development. (Laura Seitz, Deseret News)
He said the first notable change is moving the headquarters of Rocky Mountain Power. The groundbreaking begins next year, and then starts getting the area ready for other development. He wants to make it a safe place for families to go.
“Public safety is going to be a top priority in this area, and that’s something we’re going to be focusing on early on,” Buys said.
He said it’s a transformation he’s committed to so homeruns and hot dogs can be in the neighborhoods’ future.
Buys said developing the lands won’t happen overnight. Getting it to the point of bringing in a team is more on the 10-year horizon, but it is on the horizon.
