$4 million expansion set for north-side shopping complex

A north-side retail center renovated earlier this year by its new owner will add a new component next summer. The final phase of Town & Country Shopping Center's $10 million makeover begins Dec. 1, when construction crews break ground for the $4 million, 28,400-square-foot Super Center Plaza, said Bill Jester, principal owner of both retail centers.

Super Center Plaza will be constructed on 2.2 acres sandwiched between Town & Country and Wal-Mart Supercenter on North Kansas Expressway. It will house as many as 13 retail tenants in bays ranging from 1,500 square feet to 4,000 square feet, Jester said.

According to property leasing agent Ken Schwab of Wilhoit Properties, Super Center Plaza is one-third pre-leased; three tenants have signed letters of intent, including a bookstore chain and hair salon.

This announcement comes 6 months after Jester's company, Resource Development Inc., invested $6 million into improvements for Town & Country Shopping Center, located immediately south of Super Center Plaza.

Jester T&C LLC purchased the 92,000-square-foot Town & Country in 2001 for $6.5 million. Resource Development is the holding company of Jester T&C LLC and Super Center Plaza LLC.

Town & Country and Super Center Plaza will not be connected a pedestrian walkway separates the facilities but there will be parking lot access between the two, Jester said. The two centers also will have parking lot access to Wal-Mart Supercenter, Jester said.

Jester purchased the Super Center Plaza land from Wal-Mart two years ago for approximately $435,000.

"About three years ago it came under Wal-Mart review and they declared it to be surplus property," Jester said. "When we bought (Town & Country), we discovered that was the case."

Jester said Wal-Mart required him to pay 30 percent more than the property's appraised value.

Jester has hired Bob Stockdale of Creative Ink Architects to design Super Center Plaza, while Harold Gray of Missouri Supermarket Builders is the general contractor. US Bank, which financed the initial makeover, is the lender.

Alleviating traffic

While activity along Kansas Expressway between Kearney Street and Interstate 44 has benefited from improved shopping facilities and the new Springfield-Greene County Library Station, the area also has developed a traffic issue. Specifically, it's the Evergreen Street and Kansas Expressway intersection (the entrance to Wal-Mart), a bottleneck for more than 30,000 passing vehicles a day because of its proximity to the signal at the Interstate 44 interchange.

An access management report conducted last year by an outside traffic consultant declared that intersection priority No. 1 for city traffic improvements.

"We agree with the prioritizing," said Earl Newman, assistant director of Springfield Public Works-Traffic Department. "It is probably the most congested segment of Kansas Expressway."

But the city does not have immediate plans to fix it. Preliminary discussions involve relocating the traffic signal about 700 feet to the south, Newman said. The Evergreen-Kansas signal is about 300 feet from the Interstate 44 interchange; that proximity is the root of the problem, Newman said.

"It's gridlock. It's too close to function," he said. "What we want to do is to move the signal to a point where it could still serve the properties on both sides (of Kansas), primarily the Wal-Mart."

Newman said 1,000 feet of separation between signals would be preferred. But there are funding issues. Newman said the relocation is estimated to cost between $350,000 and $400,000.

"That's part of the problem; we don't know exactly where that money would come from," he added.

Because Kansas Expressway is a state highway, Newman hopes the Missouri Department of Transportation would partner in the project.

Jester is in favor of the relocation, which would move the stoplight closer to the entrance of Super Center Plaza. He would like to see it happen in congruence with his development, which should be complete in June. "(The intersection's) dangerous," he said. "The sooner, the better."

But Newman doesn't see the relocation progressing for at least another year.

"It's far from a done deal. It's in the list; it's an idea (that) has to be worked out with the stakeholders in the area," Newman said, naming Wal-Mart, McDonald's and QuikTrip as businesses affected. "Hopefully, they would see the benefits of trying to do something. We really aren't in the business of trying to force something on anybody up there; we want to work it out with the people."

Residential development

Adding to the congestion, and to the potential customers at Town & Country and Super Center Plaza, is a 120-lot planned subdivision on 36 acres northwest of I-44 and Kansas, behind Lowe's. Jim Wehr, principal of Wehr Properties, owns the land, and Wehr Construction is general contractor, according to Emily Wehr, in-house general counsel for the companies.

She said the commercial development along Kansas was a factor in developing the land residentially.

"We just thought that area was ripe for residential," Wehr said. "A lot of people have commented that it would be a great site for home development. That area is sort of starting to build up."

Wehr said lots, estimated to cost between $22,000 and $32,000, will be sold to builders next summer. Home values are anticipated to range from $125,000 to $150,000.