Cantor's comments mirror the official Republican response to the speech, delivered by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who mixed a defense of core Republican values with an overall pledge to work with Obama.
The downtown core got a boost with the 2012 opening of the City Creek Center, a shopping mall and mixed-use development of rentals and condos across the street from the Salt Lake Temple, financed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.