05-07-2007 Council Workshop Meeting

(Satellite Picture thanks to Google Maps)

The Overland City Council held a workshop meeting on Monday May 7th, 2007. The subject of the meeting was the 8610 Page Redevelopment Project and the proposed Tax Abatement.

The following is the video (1 1/4 hours long) of that meeting in it's entirety:

We learned some disappointing news at this meeting. Beech Nut, though they had already signed a lease with the developer, has since decided to pull out of the project. They apparently made a corporate decision to relocate their headquarters office to New York where the bulk of their production facilities are. This causes some concern about this project and I am sure it is a cause of great concern for all their local employees as well.

This causes some additional issues in this development plan. The developer, though they did commit to still building green, can no longer commit to what level of LEED certification the property might receive. We've talked before about how this development being green, when combined with the Alberici property could start a trend that could make Overland the "Green Buckle of the Inner Belt". That concept could potentially be in jeopardy now. However, when you consider the positive public relations, media exposure and cost savings building green can bring a company I am confident that there are plenty of them out there who are interested in this approach.

The developer also mentioned that the proposed design of the building will change, suggesting they would be adding more glass to make it more appealing to the eye (which is probably not a bad thing). Ultimately we learned that the lack of a secured tenant makes it impossible for the developer to commit to various building elements and the like because it is ultimately up to the future tenant and what they want (and are willing to pay for).

The Council discussed ways to better protect the taxpayers on this project and, assuming these changes can be made in the Development agreement in time, they expect to vote on this issue at the next City Council Meeting (May 14th, 2007).

The concerns this project now raises for me are similar to the concerns I had with the 8601 Page Redevelopment. We don't have any hard information on what companies will locate there. My initial reaction is to suggest the same course of action with this developer as I did with that developer, which was wait on this proposal until they come back to us with more information. I believe they could still use the Tax Abatement as a selling point by presenting the lease as contingent on the TA passing. I doubt the Council would oppose it at that point. However, this developer has already committed to a much greater degree than the other as is obvious when you look at the amount of construction that is happening on that site already.

Councilperson Conlon suggested that the City needs to add clawbacks, which are contractual provisions that act as a sort of money back guarantee in the Abatement agreement (here's a site I found with some good economic development term definitions). This concept really changes things. If the City is able to add provisions that ensure that the development be completed in a way that benefits the City as a whole, I'd not only feel comfortable supporting this development, but I'd be a lot closer to supporting the 8601 development as well (assuming the same could be done with that agreement).

There was some discussion last night about creating a policy statement for the City of Overland on Tax Abatement projects. Everyone seemed to agree that this would be a good idea for the future but that it was unlikely that it would be completed before this particular project went through. The idea of the policy statement is to give Developers a better idea of what the City of Overland expects and requires for Tax Abatement to be considered. It could also work as a guide for this and future City Councils. I've added a poll that addresses this to a degree. I'm interested in knowing how our readers stand on including green building requirements to such a policy.

Gateway Commercial appears to be the company handling this property. They have it listed here but currently they have no other information online about the project.

I will add more information to this article as I develop it over the next few days. For now I wanted our readers to know about Beech Nut pulling out and to have the opportunity to see the meeting for themselves.

Though we will be adding more information as we get it there is no reason to wait to comment on this issue. Click the comment link below and let us know what you think.

Happy V-E Day Everyone!