Today we mark the fifth anniversary of the Downtown Rising vision. The plan we shared that day quickly became a movement and has since resulted in an unprecedented and unsurpassed renovation of our capital city.

Few and far between are the occasions when overstatement simply isn’t possible. For business in downtown Salt Lake City—tomorrow will be such a day.

After years of dedicated work and heightened anticipation, the City Creek Center will officially open. While the City Creek project was not part of the original Downtown Rising vision, it has become an important part of the fabric of our city.

The lesson: when we combine great vision with skill, industry and determination to elevate our community, there is no limit to what we can achieve.

Throughout our history we have proven this time and time again. Industry, making something of great worth and benefit from the available resources, is in the very make-up of the people of this state.

As we open a new chapter in the long and rich history of Utah’s capital city, I express my admiration for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for its unwavering dedication and unmatched contribution to Salt Lake City. I express appreciation for the Taubman Company for the new and critical role it will play in downtown.

To Nordstrom and Macy’s, we are grateful for your commitment to the city and to this project. You belong downtown, we are grateful you are here and we hope you always be a part of our community. We welcome the new retailers and restaurants to our city, as well.

To all the businesses that played a role in making the City Creek Center project evolve from a vision to a blueprint to a parcel of open land to a frame work and finally to the remarkable finished project we will open tomorrow, thank you all.

Editor’s note: This op-ed originally ran in the The Salt Lake Tribute, Sunday, March 18, 2012. Lane Beattie is the president and CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber and Jason Mathis is the Executive Director of the Downtown Alliance.

This week marks an important Downtown Rising milestone with the opening of City Creek Center. The Salt Lake Chamber and Downtown Alliance applaud the optimism that this project embodies and we are grateful for the investment it represents.

Much will be written about City Creek this week, and it is just one chapter of a much broader story about downtown. We are equally excited about the strength and momentum of other downtown retailer centers on Main Street, Broadway and The Gateway.  A rising downtown tide may create some waves, but it will also lift all ships.

As one of our community’s great treasures, The Gateway generates retail, office and residential momentum that continues to transform the western half of downtown. Since it opened, The Gateway has served as one of Utah’s most successful mixed-use developments and premiere shopping destinations. This will continue. The Gateway is critical to Salt Lake City’s continued success and a fundamental part of our past, present and future.

Amenities like the Olympic Legacy Plaza, Discovery Gateway, the Clark Planetarium and Megaplex 12 set The Gateway apart from other shopping destinations. Retailers like Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Z Gallerie, the Apple Store, and Ambercrombie & Fitch create a distinct shopping experience. Underscoring The Gateway’s continued vitality, new stores including Bettie Page, Epic Board Shop, Francesca’s Collection and G-Star Raw have recently opened or been announced.

Our optimism about the future of The Gateway is also driven by the way it is integrated into the larger neighborhood. The Gateway has a symbiotic relationship with the Utah Jazz and EnergySolutions Arena. The LDS Business College and the BYU Extension at the Triad Center bring students and faculty to the neighborhood. The Hyatt Place Hotel opened at The Gateway a few years ago, and the next phase of office development, Gateway Six, is scheduled to open in June with 100 percent occupancy.

We are also confident about The Gateway’s long-term success because of leadership from property owners. Inland Western and The Boyer Company should be credited for their past investments and their commitment to our community. The have built a retail center that will stand the test of time. We stand with them.

We also stand with the independent merchants who are building local businesses throughout the rest of downtown. The urban renaissance inspired by Downtown Rising extends to the nearly 100 downtown store-front businesses that have opened their doors in the past three years. They are an essential part of downtown’s story. Linked by a free-fare TRAX zone, complemented by cultural amenities, supported by 30,000 parking spaces and 70,000 daily commuters, downtown truly is on the rise. With plans for a performing arts center, convention headquarters hotel, street car system, public market, film and media center, new office towers, and thousands of new residents, downtown’s future is bright.

The waves that may come from this rising tide are not unexpected. We have been preparing for the opening of City Creek Center for years, and the ribbon cutting on March 22 has been highly anticipated. It is part of the inevitable change that drives any dynamic community.

The goal for city officials and business leaders is to manage inevitable change in ways that ultimately strengthen the larger community. We will continue to adapt to changing economic dynamics and shifting demographics as we thoughtfully plan for the future. As we celebrate the opening of City Creek Center this week it is helpful to note that it is but one more chapter in the larger story of Utah’s capital city.

Last Friday, the Salt Lake Chamber joined Gov. Gary Herbert to honor The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for its historical and continuing contribution to downtown Salt Lake City. Chamber President Lane Beattie presented President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency of the LDS Church, with a statue of Brigham Young as a small token of appreciation. Bishop H. David Burton and Mark Gibbons were presented with framed photos of the workers who built the City Creek Center.

Below are the prepared remarks delivered by Beattie. Videos of the other speakers, United Way of Salt Lake President and CEO Deborah Bayle and Utah Symphony – Utah Opera Chair Pat Richards, are posted below.

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In 1847, when Mormon pioneers set out across the vast American wilderness, few knew the final destination. Some of those pioneers thought Oregon or California or even Texas might be the ultimate home of the Saints.

But Brigham Young knew. He knew that this high desert valley, secured by the granite walls of the Rocky Mountains, watered by winter snow pack, desolate, barren and uncontested, next to a dead salty sea would be a place – would be the Right Place – for his people to build their city, unmolested by the persecutions of the east.

The pioneers didn’t know exactly how they would get here. Brigham Young probably didn’t know exactly how they would get here – what roads they would take, what hills they would have to climb, what dangers they would face and who would ultimately survive.

But as a people, they pushed forward in faith and determination. The Church leaders had a long-term vision for the future, even if they did not know every detail about how that vision would be realized.  And so it goes today, as we prepare to open City Creek Center in the heart of Salt Lake City – a remade and re-envisioned downtown core for this great American city

We come here today to thank the leaders of this Church, who have followed in Brigham Young’s footsteps.  As President Young’s wagon crested over the final hill, emerging from Emigration Canyon, he looked down on this valley and uttered the now famous words: “This is the right place. Drive on.”  And they did.  And they still are!

From this site, in Abravanel Hall, we see the spires of the Temple that took 40 years to build from hand cut granite blocks quarried out of Little Cottonwood Canyon. We see the Tabernacle dome, built like a bridge without internal support – an engineering marvel of its day. We see the work of the church in religious buildings throughout our community and state.

But in addition to these ecclesiastical investments, down the street we see the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, built as the Hotel Utah 100 years ago because The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recognized the need for civic engagement and wanted to create a welcoming place for presidents, ambassadors and captains of industry who might come to this valley.

The Church continues this role today, helping to create a welcoming and hospitable community for all visitors through outreach and activities at Temple Square, free concerts and performances of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and through support of the convention industry. Many people may not know that much of the land under the Salt Palace Convention Center is owned by the LDS Church.

Early in the history of this community, the Church recognized the need for banking institutions and helped to organize the Deseret National Bank that consolidated with the Security National Bank in 1932, later to become First Security Bank and now part of Wells Fargo – one of the sponsors of our event this morning. Another offshoot of the Deseret National Bank was Zions Savings Bank and Trust Company that evolved to become Zions Bancorporation. The two largest banking organizations in our community have roots in the community stewardship of the LDS Church many years ago.

The LDS Church has also played an important role in providing medical services for this community. LDS Hospital was established in 1905.  Primary Children’s Hospital was founded as a pediatric ward of LDS Hospital in 1911 and became a stand-alone facility in 1922. In 1975, the LDS Church donated the 15 hospitals in its system back to the community, and created a nonprofit, non-denominational organization called Intermountain Healthcare. Today, Intermountain is lauded as one of the nation’s greatest healthcare organizations by authors, political leaders and medical experts. Intermountain has become a model healthcare organization through the hard work of doctors, nurses and other medical professionals, but also as a lasting legacy of its founding organizers.

The Church has always supported education. In 1850, Brigham Young created a board of regents to establish the University of Deseret, which later became the University of Utah. Twenty-five years later in 1875, the LDS Church sponsored the Brigham Young Academy, which became a full-fledged university in 1903. Today, BYU is one of the largest private universities in America. And the LDS Church provides education in Salt Lake City through the BYU extension and LDS Business College both located at Triad Center, near The Gateway.

Through Deseret Management Corporation, the Church plays a benevolent and supportive role in the printing industry, in newspapers and broadcast media, hospitality and even in retail.  Many people may not know that the Zions Cooperative Mercantile Institution – or ZCMI – was among the world’s first department stores.  Developed because Church leaders saw a need for the people of Utah, and they committed to meeting that need through organization, structure and when the times called for it, through capital investments.

In a few short weeks City Creek Center will open as the largest private mixed-use development in Utah’s history, ensuring the continued vitality and strength of our urban center. The construction of this center occurred during a challenging time in the world’s economy.  But because of the Church’s commitment to driving on, the pain of the global recession was felt less severely here than in other communities.  Because of the Church’s commitment, others were willing to invest.

Hamilton Partners, OC Tanner, Wasatch Commercial, the Boyer Company have all made commitments to the future of this community, helping to create a downtown that can truly be embraced by people across the region.  Downtown is truly rising – but it hasn’t happened by accident or happenstance. It has happened because of the faith and determination of the people of Utah. That faith and determination can be traced to the roots of those early pioneers

Much has already been written about City Creek, and you will hear much more about it over the next few weeks.  But as we prepare for the opening of this stunning example of new urbanism in downtown Salt Lake City, it is appropriate for us to pause, look back on the history of this community, and the history of the LDS Church as a community steward, to say thank you. Thank you so much.

The pioneers who helped to settle this valley did not know how their journey might end – but they knew where they wanted to be. They moved forward steadily, in the direction set by their leaders, to build a new community.  And those leaders have been building up this same community ever since.

When City Creek Center was first announced in 2006, no one knew the twists and turns the design process would take exactly how the buildings would be constructed, or what challenges the project would face. But the leaders knew they wanted to create a new core for Salt Lake City’s downtown, and they worked through every decision, building challenge and the ultimate construction with dedication and commitment.  Today we honor them, and the many hundreds of workers from Big D Construction, Jacobsen Construction and Okland Construction who have made the promise of City Creek Center a reality.

We also note that City Creek Center is not the end of Downtown Rising.  It is an important milestone. But the evolution of downtown and the work of this great community steward will go on forever.

The business and political leaders who are gathered here this morning recognize the unique and central role The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has played in the development of Salt Lake City, and of the State of Utah. We recognize the unique role the Church plays today.

The Church often acts quietly, and without great fan fare to improve the lives of people across the Intermountain West.  Although it has global reach, there is a unique and eternal bond that the Church has with Salt Lake City.  Indeed, Bishop Burton has called the Church the birth parents of this community – and as a community we are thriving, in part, because of the long-history of community stewardship from this organization.  From the moment Brigham Young laid eyes on this valley, and said those famous words: “This is the Right Place, Drive On!” that is what the Church has done.  And it is our great honor to be able to thank them today.

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At this time I would like to invite Mark Gibbons, President of the Church’s new Investment Properties Management Department and Bishop H. David Burton, presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the stage.

Through remarkable dedication and leadership, these men have labored to build this new center in the heart of our community. We have printed photos of the workers who have also helped to create this great new center and would like to offer them to you as a token of our deep and abiding gratitude for your work, your vision and your dedication in constructing City Creek Center.

Thank you so much for your efforts to bring this wonderful new part of our community to life.

Now I would like to invite President Dieter F. Uchtdorf to the stage.  President Uchtdorf, we have commissioned this statue of a young Brigham Young, striding purposefully forward, symbolizing the commitment of the Church to “Drive On”. As political and business leaders, we thank The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for your spirit, your determination and your commitment to our community over so many years. Thank you so much.