City Beat: Council approves $2M incentives for Glenstone Marketplace

Business development plans brought on by developers and backed by customers – not school districts or other city services – are exactly the kinds of plans Councilman Craig Hosmer wants to support.

At the June 8 Springfield City Council meeting, Hosmer, a frequent critic of tax abatements for developers of rundown properties, was one of eight council members to approve $2.25 million in incentives for over $10 million in retail development at a vacant and deteriorating hotel property on South Glenstone Avenue.

Minus an absent Councilman Craig Fishel, council unanimously backed plans for the Glenstone Marketplace Community Improvement District. The CID was established to collect an additional sales tax of up to 1 cent per dollar at the 8.2-acre property to reimburse developers removing blighted conditions at 3333 S. Glenstone Ave., the former Clarion and Howard Johnson hotels.

According to the terms, developer Glenstone Marketplace LLC can receive the tax proceeds for up to 20 years or until the estimated $2.25 million in reimbursable expenses is collected from sales within the district.

A finding of blight on the property was necessary to establish the CID, but unlike roughly a dozen projects brought before council the past two years, the blight designation won’t be used to secure 10 years of property tax abatements on new improvements. At the May 26 public hearing on the Glenstone Marketplace plans, Hosmer praised developers for not burdening Springfield Public Schools or other city services by freezing property taxes.

At the June 8 council meeting, four of Hosmer’s peers expressed their support for the CID and redevelopment plans.

“When the conditions are appropriate, a CID can lift an entire area as we’ve seen downtown and with the Branson Landing. This is an appropriate use of this mechanism. It is one of many tools we have for economic development,” Councilman Justin Burnett said.

The development plans, estimated to generate $30 million in taxable revenue and over 100 jobs, include 80,000 square feet of retail space targeting stores between 10,000 square feet and 30,000 square feet. With approval, developers Kevin Guffey and Brad Thessing plan to begin construction this summer.

“This is the last eyesore in a very visible shopping area between the Battlefield Mall and James River Freeway, so I am so excited to be able to support this,” Councilwoman Jan Fisk said.

Representing the developers at council’s May 26 first reading, Baird Lightner Millsap PC attorney Brett Roubal told city officials leases were in place with tenants he described as “junior-box” retailers.

He declined to name expected or potential occupants.

2016 budget
City officials introduced its fiscal 2016 operating budget, a 7 percent increase compared to the current year.

At $334 million next year, Springfield Finance Director Mary Mannix Decker pointed to growing sales tax collections.

“This increase is primarily due to strong sales-tax growth,” she said of the 3 percent projected growth in fiscal 2016, which begins July 1. “Although we often talk about the general fund when we talk about sales tax revenue growth, it also benefits the Parks Department, the quarter-cent capital improvements plan, the eighth-cent transportation fund, as well as the Police-Fire pension sales tax.”

The city’s sales tax check for the month of June – which represents transactions the state processed in May – brought year-to-date sales tax revenue up 8 percent compared to the same time in 2014.

Also in the proposed budget, scheduled for a vote June 22, most city employees are in line for a 1.5 percent pay increase, according to information Decker provided to council.

Special revenue funds, such as the art museum fund and the law enforcement sales tax, are forecasted at $104.8 million, up from $99.7 million, and the general fund is scheduled at $79.1 million, up from just under $77 million in the current fiscal year.

Moon City
Council unanimously passed an ordinance that establishes a planned development in the Moon City creative district north of Commercial Street from commercial districts such as heavy manufacturing and light industrial. This follows a move in April to establish a live/work overlay district where residents in the artistic neighborhood could operate businesses out of their homes under certain guidelines. Council approved that zoning change and a strategic plan for the district in December.

According to Springfield Senior Planner Randall Whitman, the goal of the planned development is to create opportunities for businesses and services that would benefit from their proximity to Moon City, and the change is intended to retain the existing business uses along Chase Street.