City Beat: Jared withdraws Country Club CID proposal

Before a changing of the guard among council members at the Springfield City Council meeting on April 8, commercial property owner and developer Curtis Jared shelved a request to establish a community improvement district at the southwest corner of Glenstone Avenue and Bennett Street.

Curtis Jared of the Jared family that co-owns the 60-year-old Country Club Center was working to establish a CID that would collect a 1-cent sales tax for facade and infrastructure improvements.

The measure was scheduled for a vote at last week’s council meeting, but Jared said he felt unsure about how the vote would go and wanted to arrange a meeting to explain the intentions of the property owners of the aging strip center.

“We didn’t really have a good vibe from City Council,” Jared said, adding four of the six property owners at the Country Club Center support the call for improvements and the establishment of the special taxing district. “We thought it was a prudent decision to go ahead and pull it for now, and take the time to sit down with City Council and go over everything in more detail. I also didn’t want them to just hear it from me, the developer, but to hear from some of the owner-occupiers.”

Jared, the president and chief operating officer of Jared Enterprises, said an outdated parking lot presents hazards for shoppers and employees at the center, and with six property owners within the center, not everyone can agree on how to fund renovations for the facade and back alleyway.

Jared, whose family owns more than 50 percent of the 52,800-square-foot center, including the vacant former Smillie’s Market, said he has worked with the other owners for the past decade to create an improvement plan. He said a couple of the owners are resistant and don’t want to pay for improvements.

Jared had sought a blighted designation on 4.1 acres that included the strip center and the adjacent Consumer Credit Counseling Services property because improvements also would comprise a cross-access road between Bennett and Portland streets. The CID would raise $1.16 million in sales taxes for renovations, according to Jared’s proposal.

He said owners would fund the cost of improvements up front, and the CID sales tax – 1 cent on the dollar for up to 25 years – would reimburse their investment.

When the bill was introduced at the March 11 council meeting, Springfield Economic Development Director Mary Lilly Smith said CIDs are usually created to fund public improvements, not to improve the properties of private ownership groups. However, she said CIDs could be established to remove blight because remediation of blight serves a public purpose. Smith said there were a dozen CIDs throughout the city.

She said blighted conditions at Country Club Center include obsolete platting, deteriorated walkways, uneven payment, a lack of cross-access easements and the presence of asbestos.

At the March 11 meeting, Mayor Bob Stephens pointed to recent examples of private commercial remodeling projects where the city was not asked to establish a special taxing district. He also questioned whether approving such a proposal would encourage other owners of aging properties to seek city assistance.

“I think (council members) are worried that this would open up the floodgates, but this really is a unique property. It is not owned by an individual owner,” Jared said. “It is not as cut-and-dried as one thinks.”

Jared said he hopes to be invited to a council luncheon and then reintroduce the proposal within a few months.

New faces
New council members Craig Fishel and Craig Hosmer were sworn in, while two members completed their terms.

Fishel, founder of Springfield-based pool supply company Fishel Pools, assumed the Zone 4 council seat covering the southeast quadrant of the city. Scott Bailes held the seat for four years. In the April 2 general election, Fishel garnered 61 percent of the vote and bested competitors Stephen Makoski, director of human resources for Rapid Robert’s Inc., and Rodney Geurin, a delivery driver for Blue Bell Creameries. Bailes did not seek re-election.

Hosmer, a partner with law firm Hosmer King & Royce LLC and a former member of the Missouri House of Representatives, was one of three council members to run unopposed. Both Mayor Bob Stephens and Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Seifried also were not challenged for their seats. Hosmer fills General Seat B, held since 2008 by John Rush, who did not run.

Hosmer could not attend the swearing-in ceremony at City Hall due to an illness, according to City Manager Greg Burris.

“I’ve been in business here in Springfield for more than 40 years, 37 with my own business,” Fishel said, noting his son is stepping into the business, creating more time for civic work. “Springfield has been incredibly good to my family, and I’m just ready to give back – stop asking ‘why,’ and start figuring out what’s going on.”

Councilwoman Jan Fisk took her oath April 8, filling General Seat A, the position she was appointed to last June after Jim O’Neal resigned as mayor and Stephens assumed the mayoral post. Fisk, co-owner of J. Howard Fisk Limousines, defeated Arthur Hodge Sr. with 70 percent of the vote in the election.

Fishel said after the meeting he’s mostly interested in building regulations and business development.

“I don’t have an agenda,” he said. “I’m here just to learn and see if there are things that can be improved on.”