Fleet Block Open Space

This timeline shows how Fleet Block has changed over time and how we have worked with the community through out the redevelopment planning process. It includes key moments in planning, public healing, and steps taken to prepare the site for future development. 

• 2009 Salt Lake City moved its Fleet operations, leaving the site vacant and contaminated. 
• 2016 The Downtown Master Plan shared a vision to turn Fleet Block into a walkable, people-centered area with homes, businesses, and community spaces. 
• January 2020 Mayor Mendenhall announced that the City would no longer wait to invest in and move forward with Fleet Block’s redevelopment. 
• May 2020 Following George Floyd’s death, murals memorializing local, state, and national victims of harmful police interactions appeared on the vacant buildings’ exterior walls, painted by a collective of anonymous artists. 
• 2021-2022 The City paused redevelopment to focus on healing with the community and the family members of those shown on the murals. From June 2021 to April 2022, City staff and professional therapists met regularly with the families to participate in grief counseling and art healing sessions, and talk about the future of the property. Those interactions culminated in the family members sending us a collective letter that expressed their hopes for the future of the Block. 
• 2020 – 2022 Understanding the families’ hopes, the Mayor and City Council committed to including a social justice theme in the block’s future planning. The City also created the Commission on Racial Equity in Policing (REPC) to examine police policies, culture, and funding, focusing on fairness and equity.
• Late 2023 The City Council approved new zoning rules for the site, allowing flexible development such as affordable family housing, open space, and community services. 
• 2024 The City researched and analyzed saving the murals but found it wasn’t possible. The walls were unstable, the murals were extremely heavy (around 3 tons each), and the environmental risks made removal too dangerous and unlikely to succeed. 
• 2024 In August, the City met with the families represented in the murals to explain what would happen next, including environmental cleanup and demolition planned for early 2025. The buildings were unsafe, and the land was contaminated and needed to be cleaned up. 
• Spring 2025 Removing the buildings—and the murals—was a difficult but necessary step to prepare the site for future use.