They’re turning dirt on the shores of Sears Lake.

In recent weeks, construction crews have been working at the old Sears site near downtown Salt Lake City, setting the stage for what is slated to become a new Intermountain Health hospital.

Workers are cleaning up the soil, contaminated by motor oil from a bygone auto shop, and making sure it’s safe for construction, Intermountain spokesperson Jess Gomez said.

“This work is important,” he said, “and supports us in the ongoing evaluation of the property to help with planning and design development decisions.”

Sears closed on that block at State Street and 800 South in 2018, and Intermountain Health bought the property at the end of 2021. Three years later, the City Council rezoned the land, clearing the way for a gleaming new hospital.

As the high-profile property has sat vacant, gunky water has collected in the hole where the store once stood, earning the nickname Sears Lake.

Recent work is focused on the store’s old auto shop footprint, closer to Main Street and 700 South. Earlier excavations in 2022 had removed three underground motor oil storage tanks that had sat beneath that shop, according to state environmental records.

In the course of taking those tanks out, officials found dangerous levels of petroleum leaked into the soil.

Motor oil can poison groundwater, and human contact with contaminated dirt can cause skin irritation and breathing problems.

Under a plan submitted to the Utah Department of Environmental Quality, Intermountain Health planned to excavate and dispose of the contaminated soil at a recycling site on the city’s west side.

Elsewhere on the block, the former site of Deseret Mortuary facing 700 South had elevated levels of chromium — which can cause lung cancer and skin issues — as of 2018. State records do not show any documented cleanup efforts at that property, which Intermountain Health also owns.

Gomez said the hospital system has been working with an architect to create plans for the old Sears property since the 2024 council decision. The agreement between the city and the healthcare nonprofit outlines that the hospital will have at least an acre of green space and that much of the facility’s ground floor will have shops, like a pharmacy, open to the public and facing the surrounding streets.

Intermountain Health will release detailed plans for the complex later this year, Gomez said. The drawings would then have to be reviewed by the Salt Lake City planning commission before they could be finalized.