Mormon's Invest in Downtown to Protect Shrines

UTAH - Like the ancients who centered their cities around hallowed ground, the LDS Church is investing more than $2 billion in downtown Salt Lake City and Ogden to flank its temples with housing towers, retail hubs, rows of restaurants and office space. “The church’s primary notion is to protect the Temple Square and the headquarters of the church,” Mark Gibbons, president of the church’s development arm City Creek Reserve told Forbes magazine last year. “That’s first and foremost. This development would not have been done just on a financial basis.” [Source: Utah News]