The new downtown Millcreek
The city center a ten year old city built for itself
Millcreek Common, and the loop that carries ice and wheels
Millcreek Common is the plaza this young city built as its downtown, on Chambers Avenue just off 3300 South. It is anchored by an 11,000 square foot skating ribbon, the largest outdoor skating surface in Utah, that holds ice in winter and takes wheels in summer. A six story city hall opened next to it in 2023, a second phase broke ground in May 2025, and the calendar around it runs all year. Here is what is built, what it costs, and how to plan a visit.
By Scott Buehler, Moving Utah
Updated October 2026
The short answer
Millcreek Common is the plaza the City of Millcreek built to serve as its downtown, at 1354 East Chambers Avenue, a block off 3300 South between Highland Drive and 1300 East. The centerpiece is a skating ribbon of about 11,000 square feet, the largest outdoor skating surface in Utah, which holds ice in winter and takes wheels through the warm months so the most expensive thing on the site is in use all year. It opened in December 2022, a six story city hall with a ground floor public market opened next to it in 2023, and a second phase broke ground in May 2025 adding mini golf, a splash creek, a skate area and a play area. Skating runs on booked, timed sessions, so plan the visit around a session rather than turning up on spec. Hours and prices move with the season; take them from millcreekcommon.org.
The skating ribbon
Ice for one half of the year, wheels for the other
This is the thing people drive across the valley for, and it behaves differently from a rink in ways worth knowing before the first visit.
A loop is not a rink. Instead of a rectangle you skate laps of, this is a ribbon that runs a circuit through the plaza, which changes what the experience feels like: you move through a place rather than going round inside a box, and it suits a mixed ability group better than a hockey sheet does. At about 11,000 square feet of surface it is the largest outdoor skating ground in Utah, and the state has a lot of ice.
Sessions are ticketed and timed, and that is the single most important practical fact. The instinct with an outdoor city plaza is to turn up, and turning up is how you find a private hire in progress. Skate hire is on site, a season pass is sold for households who will be back, and prebooking is strongly encouraged because sessions sell out and hours flex for weather and events. Published hours change with the season and even between sources, so take the current ones from the venue rather than from a listing.
In the warm months the surface takes wheels. Roller skating, skate classes and free play sessions for non-motorized wheels run on the same ribbon that carried ice in February, and the program around it includes yoga, pilates and live music. A climbing wall runs daily through the middle of the day and the splash pad runs from mid-morning until late. Very little of this is what people expect from a city that has only existed on paper since 2016.
Book the session, then plan the evening around it. The loop is the anchor rather than the whole trip. The public market on the ground floor of city hall needs no session ticket, the summer program runs through the warm months with live music and food trucks, and the farmers market takes Friday evenings from the middle of July to the end of October. A booked skate slot at the right hour turns into a whole evening without anybody having to drive anywhere else, which is precisely the point of the project.
What phase two adds
A second phase in the ground, with the money already assembled
The distinction that matters on any building project is between what is funded and started and what is still a drawing. Everything in the list below has money behind it and a groundbreaking date on it.
Phase two broke ground on 19 May 2025 and is adding a splash creek, a skate canyon, a 19 hole mini golf course the city calls the only one in the north of Salt Lake County, a Milo the Moose play area, a hangout named The Treehouse, 135 trees and shade structures. It is the recreation half of the site, laid on the green space beside the plaza. Feature by feature the openings arrive as the work finishes, so treat any single piece as open when the city says it is open rather than before.
The funding is worth setting out, because a small city assembling over 13 million dollars for a park is not a routine event and the sources tell you how it was done. Reported at the groundbreaking: 2.5 million dollars from the National Park Service, 2.5 million in Utah COVID era open space funds, 1.5 million from Salt Lake County TRCC, 1 million from a Utah Outdoor Recreation Grant and roughly 900,000 dollars in developer park impact fees, on top of earlier grants. That is six sources for one park, which is what a city with a young tax base does instead of writing a single check.
Phase one, finished in 2022, carried the loop, the splash pad and the retail, and the six story city hall opened beside it in 2023. That building is the piece that turns a plaza into a genuine downtown: its ground floor holds a public market with a coffee house and a restaurant, a police precinct sits above it, city offices fill the middle floors, and a community room and rooftop event space top it off. When a city with no historic center puts its own offices on the ground it has just landscaped, it is making a deliberate statement about where it intends the middle of the place to be.
What is being added in phase two
- Splash creek. A water feature that expands on the existing splash pad.
- Skate canyon. A skate area, separate from the skating loop.
- Mini golf. A 19 hole course, the only one in the north of Salt Lake County by the city's account.
- Milo the Moose play area. The play structure at the heart of the new green space.
- The Treehouse. A hangout area within the expanded grounds.
- 135 trees. Plus shade structures, across the phase two ground.
The year here
A calendar that runs in every season rather than one
The pattern is deliberate. In winter the ribbon carries ice, with booked sessions and skate hire. When the ice goes, wheels return to the same surface and free play sessions run on weekday mornings in the warm months. Through the middle of summer the city's Venture Out program runs free Friday evening festivals, and it runs them in the city parks rather than at the Common, so the Friday habit moves across town in June before it settles here. From the middle of July to the end of October the farmers market takes Friday evenings at the Common, with produce, farm goods, prepared food, craft stalls, live music and food trucks, free to attend. The indoor public market, the climbing wall and the event spaces run all year.
That last decision, spreading June across the parks, is the one that says most about the place. A city with one new asset could easily put every event on it. Millcreek instead keeps the Common for the parts of the year the parks cannot carry, and the result is a calendar with something free and outdoors on most Friday evenings from the start of June to the end of October. That is a genuinely good return for a city that had no square at all ten years ago.
A city with no historic downtown decided to build one, starting with the ice.
Before you go
Parking, tickets and what to expect on the site
Parking is reached from Chambers Avenue or Woodland Avenue rather than from the 3300 South frontage, which is the direction satellite navigation gets wrong most often. The surrounding streets are residential and they fill on a market Friday, so arriving twenty minutes early and parking once is worth more than circling. The site is walkable from the 3300 South corridor if you are already on that side of the city.
Tickets come from the venue's own booking system. Skate hire is on site, taking your own is faster at busy times, and the season pass is the sensible purchase for a household that will come back more than a handful of times over a winter. Free play sessions on weekday mornings exist for wheels in the warm months and are the cheapest way to try the loop before committing to anything.
Expect a plaza next to a building site while phase two finishes. Fencing moves, sections open and close, and the layout in a photograph from last season is not the layout you will find. That is the honest picture of a civic center being built in stages, and it is a much better problem than the alternative. The rest of what a weekend here looks like is on the ranked list of the whole city.
Four things worth doing first
- Book the session. Walk-up availability is not something to rely on, especially at weekends.
- Check current hours at millcreekcommon.org, because they move with the season.
- Plan the parking from Chambers or Woodland Avenue rather than the main road frontage.
- Dress for standing outdoors in a valley winter, which is colder than walking in one.
Scott Buehler
Moving Utah About Scott
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The Common, answered
At 1354 East Chambers Avenue in Millcreek, a block off 3300 South between Highland Drive and 1300 East. Parking is reached from Chambers Avenue or from Woodland Avenue rather than from the 3300 South frontage, which is the direction satellite navigation most often gets wrong. It is walkable from the 3300 South corridor if you are already on that side of the city.
About 11,000 square feet of surface, which makes it the largest outdoor skating ground in Utah. It is a loop rather than a rectangle, so it runs as a circuit through the plaza instead of as a rink you skate laps inside. It opened in December 2022 and carries ice through the winter and wheels through the warm months, which keeps it in use all year rather than for one season.
Yes. Skating runs on booked, timed sessions rather than open access, and the schedule changes with the season and with private hires, so turning up on spec is how people find the loop unavailable. Skate hire is on site and a season pass is sold for households that expect to come back. Free play sessions for non-motorized wheels have run on weekday mornings in the warm months. Book through millcreekcommon.org.
A splash creek, a skate canyon, a 19 hole mini golf course described by the city as the only one in the north of Salt Lake County, a Milo the Moose play area, a hangout called The Treehouse, 135 trees and shade structures. Phase two broke ground on 19 May 2025. Feature openings arrive as the work finishes, so treat any single piece as open when the city announces it rather than before.
Phase two alone assembled over 13 million dollars from six sources, reported at the groundbreaking as 2.5 million dollars from the National Park Service, 2.5 million in Utah COVID era open space funds, 1.5 million from Salt Lake County TRCC, 1 million from a Utah Outdoor Recreation Grant and about 900,000 dollars in developer park impact fees, on top of earlier grants. Six funding sources for one park is what a young city does instead of writing a single check.
Yes, on Friday evenings from the middle of July to the end of October, with produce, farm goods, prepared food and craft stalls, plus live music and food trucks. It is free to attend. Earlier in the summer the city's Venture Out program runs free Friday evening festivals in the city parks rather than at the Common, so the Friday habit moves across town in June and then settles here.
Yes, and it is arguably busier. The skating loop takes wheels once the ice goes, the splash pad has run daily from mid-morning until late, a climbing wall runs through the middle of the day, and the summer program adds yoga, pilates, skate classes and live music. The indoor public market is open all year. Hours move with the season, so take them from the venue rather than from a listing.
Yes. A six story city hall opened next to phase one in 2023, and it is the piece that turns the plaza into a real downtown. Its ground floor holds a public market with a coffee house and a restaurant, a police precinct sits above it, city offices fill the middle floors, and a community room and rooftop event space top it off. The market and plaza are open to anyone, not only to people with city business.
For an evening, yes. The indoor public market needs no session ticket, the Friday program through the summer carries live music and food trucks, the farmers market runs Friday evenings from mid-July to late October, and the splash pad and climbing wall have their own hours. If you are traveling any distance for it, aim at a Friday evening in September or a winter session rather than a quiet weekday afternoon in the middle of construction.
A city building its own middle is a genuine signal
Most valley suburbs inherited a center. Millcreek is assembling one on purpose, with a new city hall open, six funding sources behind the next phase and a plaza already drawing the whole city on a Friday evening. If an address near that corridor is what you are weighing, tell me what matters and a Salt Lake County partner agent picks up the ground work while I take the homework and the lending side.
Or call Scott: (435) 357-4345or send Scott a message
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