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Ozark on verge of redevelopments

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Ozark is taking a page from Springfield’s redevelopment playbook as city leaders work to bring a commercial mixed-use development to the Christian County community.

City aldermen this summer approved a multimillion dollar three-pronged incentives package for 65 & CC Development LLC developer Mike Seitz’s Deerbrook Marketplace concept, structured with the Chapter 353 Redevelopment Corp. tax abatement program, a community improvement district and a developer’s agreement.

Ozark City Administrator Steve Childers said the plan has been in the works for nearly a year.

“We’ve have some big retail developments which have fallen through in the past and we had to go back to the drawing board,” he said, referring to an unsuccessful attempt by two developers for the 47-acre Finley River Neighborhood Redevelopment District.

“I think now we have achieved a level of traffic and rooftops that attract the interest of national chains.”

The Deerbrook Marketplace land sits along the northwest corner of U.S. Highway 65 and state Route CC, one of the city’s busiest intersections. Across the highway sits tourist destination Lambert’s Cafe, a city industrial park, a Price Cutter grocery store, several strip malls and James River Church – southwest Missouri’s largest.

But Deerbrook isn’t the only item on Ozark’s development agenda.

St. Charles-based Focused Senior Communities plans to construct a $15 million, 80-bed skilled nursing community on 10 acres adjacent to Price Cutter. Also, the recently vacated Orscheln Farm & Home in central Ozark sold in October to Ozark One LLC with intentions of bringing another national-level retailer into the mix.

Courting Deerbrook
According to a redevelopment plan submitted to the Ozark Board of Aldermen, a projected four-year build-out includes a Kum & Go convenience store, McDonald’s restaurant and nine unclaimed lots, earmarked for restaurants, retail, grocery and a hotel.

Thessing Commercial Realtor owner Brad Thessing is actively marketing the development, but he declined to speak with Springfield Business Journal about the project – currently a pile of ungraded fill dirt.

Developer Seitz sought a multifaceted incentive and financing package for infrastructure on the 33-acre tract of land, the largest of which would incrementally abate development taxes for 25 years.

Under Chapter 353 of the Missouri Revised Statues, an abatement may be granted for 100 percent of the value of the improvements for 10 years and by 50 percent for up to 15 additional years. For Deerbrook, Ozark officials approved an abatement of 100 percent for the first five years, 87.5 percent abatement through year 10, 50 percent in years 11–15, a 37.5 percent abatement in years 16–20 and 12.5 percent through the 25th year. Over 25 years, the approved plan would abate $4.5 million.

Seitz, a former business partner of Springfield developer Scott Tillman and owner of Triple S Properties’ five apartment complexes across southwest Missouri, did not return interview requests, but Childers said the Chapter 353 abatement plan is a good fit for the city.

“This as an alternative to a (tax increment financing) district, which doesn’t benefit areas such as the Ozark School District,” he said.

“Springfield has a good track record with this model, and we’ve seen the success there.”

A standard CID also was approved for the development, imposing a 1 percent sales tax collected within the redevelopment area.

The third component in the plan is a sales tax reimbursement agreement between the CID and property owner with the city of Ozark. According to the submitted plan, Ozark will contribute 75 percent of the city’s 1 percent general sales tax levy generated by the new business to the CID to repay the expected $4.1 million cost of public improvements, such as the relocation of North 21st Street.

“(The Missouri Department of Transportation) is about to start work on the diverging diamond interchange at 65 and CC and that’s going to be a huge economic driver,” Childers said. “As we move forward, these improvements will blend with that intersection and create a much more useable space.”

According to the plan, the developer could receive repayments of an estimated $5.8 million from the CID and cooperative agreement over a 15-year term to offset the estimated $4.1 million in site development costs. Seitz is expected to complete infrastructure improvements by December 2015, with retail in place by 2016 and full development within four years.

In 2016, the first year of abatement, the city expects to realize $219,800 in new sales taxes.

By the final year of abatement in 2040, that number is expected to grow 672 percent to $1.7 million.

At full development, the city estimates Deerbrook would generate $19.4 million in annual sales.

Senior living
The Healthcare Facilities Review Committee of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services granted Focused Senior Communities a certificate of need Nov. 3, giving it the green light for development in Ozark.

The $15 million campus would be the first in Missouri built under the model developed by the Green House Project, a national nonprofit organization that promotes individualized care in smaller homes. Currently, there are 170 Green House homes operating in 27 states and 130 more in the pipeline across another five states.  

Focused Senior Communities CEO Al Beamer said the model caters to aging baby boomers.

“This isn’t a warehouse facility for older people where you are told when to get up and when to eat each day,” he said. “These residents have choices and dignity in growing older.”

The campus plan comprises eight 7,000-square-foot homes, each with a central dining room, hearth room and open kitchen surrounded by 10 private resident rooms with private bathrooms. A screened porch will lead to a large patio, with walkways and gardens between homes.

“In the state of Missouri, Ozark has the greatest need for a facility like this,” Beamer said.

“State demographics found a need for 691 skilled beds in Christian County. With our 80, the problem is a long way from being solved, but it’s a good start.”

Beamer expects to break ground in the spring and open by late fall, with plans to hire roughly 100 staff members.

New life in center city
When Orscheln Farm & Home last month vacated its longtime home in central Ozark for new digs along state Route NN – just a stone’s throw from Focused Senior Communities’ planned campus – the former Wal-Mart space wasn’t empty for long.

On Oct. 16, Ozark One LLC purchased the 50,000-square-foot space from Kansas City-based Ozark BBQ Series I LLC.

Zachary Harrell of Scott F. Harrell & Associates Inc., who represented the buyer, said initial plans for the building include exterior renovations and leasing the entire property to a single tenant or subdividing the space into as many as three bays.

“Right now, they are keeping their options open and shopping this to national retailers,” Harrell said. “Ozark is a very dynamic market. It’s in the Springfield (metropolitan statistical area), but in Springfield there isn’t a lot of vacant, large-box retail space.”

Harrell said new owner James Bailey, of Poplar Bluff, is working to clean up the space, but hasn’t outlined a time frame.[[In-content Ad]]

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