SALT LAKE CITY — The event is expected to draw 22,000 more people each day to the downtown area for six months.
It's not a sports event, nor is it a convention. Downtown boosters are urging businesses to start planning now for the open house for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Salt Lake Temple.
"They expect three to five million people will tour the temple and other activities in and around Temple Square," said Dee Brewer, the executive director of the Downtown Alliance.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said it is still working on the details since the faith's President Russell M. Nelson announced plans for it in February. The temple will reopen in April 2027 with ticketed tours that will run 12 hours a day through October. Non-members will be allowed to go inside, until the temple is re-dedicated. But the faith and the Downtown Alliance are anticipating huge crowds.
Salt Lake Temple to welcome open house visitors in 2027:
"One way to think about it: This will be like adding a Delta Center event, an Abravanel Hall event and an Eccles Theatre event every day for six months," Brewer told FOX 13 News in an interview Tuesday. "It is on par with the Olympics. It’s a longer period of time. And I think it actually will have a greater financial impact for merchants and restaurants downtown."
The Downtown Alliance is calculating an additional $300-400 million in spending as a result of the Salt Lake Temple open house. They're telling business owners to be prepared for additional foot traffic, especially restaurants.
"That’s just for merchants and retailers downtown," Brewer said. "That’s not including hotels, travel, gasoline and rental cars. The overall economic impact will be much larger."
The Downtown Alliance said it will also be working to encourage people who visit downtown to take mass transit or park in private lots. But unlike a Jazz game, a Utah Hockey Club game or even General Conference, Brewer said this will be a steady drip of people downtown so the area can absorb the additional crowds.
Jessica Johns, the general manager for the James Beard Award-nominated restaurant Urban Hill, is familiar with the impact of a Latter-day Saint temple open house.
"I was managing a restaurant in Ogden at the time for the Ogden temple re-dedication and it was a huge impact," she told FOX 13 News.
At Urban Hill, they are used to crowds. But still, Johns said the restaurant will be planning for what is to come.
"It’s very exciting. I think we get used to the Jazz crowd, the theatre crowd, some of these bigger conventions and sporting events that come in," she said. "This will be all day, every day. So I think we’re expecting a lot of downtown businesses to be at max capacity in a lot of ways."
