Provo is growing -- up.

Plans for three new buildings are in the works for downtown Provo, including a 10-story mid-rise building.

The Wells Fargo building stands at seven stories to the immediate north of the announced project.

It will be built on the historic Knight Block on the northeast corner of Center Street and University Avenue and will be "an incredible heart of the city where people work, where people live, and where people play," said Provo Mayor Lewis Billings.

The project is tentatively called University Tower and is slated to be a mixed-use project, including retail on the ground floor with office and possibly residential space on the upper floors.

It also will include two shorter buildings -- one four-story and one three-story residential development.

An unnamed Fortune 100 company is considering purchasing naming rights to the building and occupying about 30 percent of the building's space.

"There are many win-wins as part of this project," said Soren Simonsen, the representative of the projects architects, Cooper Roberts Simonsen and Associates.

Simonsen said this project would allow the area to "retain the charm, the beauty and elegance" of downtown Provo.

The announcement came Wednesday afternoon from Billings along with Brad Sears of REMS Development LCC, Simonsen representing the architects, and Provo Redevelopment Agency Director Paul Glauser.

Billings hailed the announcement of the polylithic structure as a "blue letter day" and called it "one of the most substantial announcements in the last decade."

The project is being pursued by a partnership between REMS development and Terminus Properties, collectively refereed to as University Tower.

About one year ago, according to Glauser, the city began accepting proposals for redevelopment of that block. Three firms came forward with proposals, and after two citizen review boards were convened, the city settled into exclusive negotiations with University Tower.

Glauser noted that the massive complex will encompass six different structures. The Gates Snow building and the Knight Block Building will be incorporated into the three new towers, and a parking structure will be built behind the complex.

The parking structure will be connected by a sky bridge to the rest of the buildings.

According to Billings, the aspect that was most intriguing about this project was that it "sought to integrate the entire block."

Between the Provo Redevelopment Agency and Terminus Properties, all the land required for the project has been successfully acquired, said Provo Municipal Council Chairman George Stewart.

The RDA owns two of the properties on the block in question and will be selling those parcels to University Tower for about $30 per square foot for a total cost of about $300,000, according to Glauser.

The city is giving the developers some significant advantages for building in downtown Provo.

They'll receive their tax increment until 2015, which means that they'll get back a significant portion of their property taxes.

According to Glauser, the city receives 70 percent of the property taxes from the building, and they will giving about 95 percent of that back to the developers.

Additionally, the Redevelopment Agency will be loaning the developers $750,000. The city will collect repayment by collecting 7 percent of the project's net profits until repaid in full.

Stewart said that they have heard no complaints about the project and "it would be hard to find fault" with it. He praised the administration, the redevelopment agency, and the Downtown Alliance for their efforts.

"These are quality developers. They know Provo and know what will work here," said Stewart.

Sears, representing the developers, said that the building should be under construction by the end of this year with tower space available by the end of 2009.

No streets will be closed due to the project, he said.

Nathan Johnson can be reached at 344-2543 or at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it