K.C. developer sells Nixa officials on IMAX

Overland Park, Kan.-based D.J. Christie Inc. intends to build a 12-screen movie theater, including an IMAX screen, on 27 acres along U.S. Highway 160. Details of the plan, at what would be the corner of an extension of State Highway CC, were announced Dec. 20 during a special Nixa Board of Aldermen meeting.

“They were looking at several different sites in different communities,” Nixa Mayor Doug Marrs said of the D.J. Christie officials who have developed or are developing properties in four states, including the Pavilions West shopping center in Joplin. “We met with them several months ago, and we told them that we were interested in any type of development along these lines.”

Marrs said that the developer considered several factors, including traffic patterns, demographics and property layout. A contract is in place to purchase the property, but Andy Mitchell, special projects manager for D.J. Christie, said the sale might take several months to close.

Mitchell said the company’s due diligence on the property should be completed within 90 days.

“It’s good visibility, there’s good access, and Highway CC coming through there is a plus,” Mitchell said.

“Looking at the other properties down there, it was the best fit for the development.”

The development

While the plans are still very preliminary, Mitchell said the idea is to have the 12-screen theater flanked by restaurant and retail tenants, though none have signed on for the development.

D.J. Christie plans to requesting tax-increment financing for the development. A TIF district comprises a geographic area where a certain increment of new taxes generated can be captured for identified capital projects. If approved, the TIF would be a first for Nixa.

“We’re extremely cautious on that note,” Marrs said. “We have historically been concerned about multiple TIFs and what that would do to the local economy and competitiveness within the community.”

He added that the city is considering the formation of a TIF committee to consider the financing option.

Should the theater development happen, it would be the first multiscreen theater in a Springfield bedroom community.

Officials with St. Louis-based Wehrenberg Theatres, which owns and operates Campbell 16 Ciné in Springfield, said they welcome another theater complex to the area.

“Springfield and the surrounding area is such a great movie-going audience that the market can hold more outstanding theaters,” Wehrenberg spokeswoman Kelly Hoskins said. “Anything that perpetuates movie-going, we’re a big fan of.”

Road improvements

The new theater could serve as the flagship development for a busy intersection when State Highway CC extends to U.S. 160.

Plans call for Highway CC to continue west of Lakeshore Drive, then turn to the south and back to the west before creating a T intersection at Highway 160, about a quarter-mile north of Tracker Road. The proposed theater development would flank both sides of CC on the east side of 160.

City Administrator Brian Bingle said the Missouri Department of Transportation has already approved the general shape of the road extension, and the city has sent out requests for proposals to design the road.

Bingle said the city is expected to finalize a contract with CJW Transportation Consultants at the Nixa Board of Aldermen’s Jan. 14 meeting.

Funding for the estimated $2.5 million extension would have to be local; Bingle said there is no state money for the project.

“In conjunction with the proposed development application, the developer and the city have suggested tying it to the TIF or creating a transportation development district,” Bingle said. A TDD allows for extra property or sales tax assessments in a specified area to fund the building, planning or design of transportation projects such as new roads and bridges.

Bingle added that if the development were to fall through, the city would continue with its plans to extend Highway CC. Without either taxing district, however, funding would likely come from bonds approved by voters. That vote, he said, would not happen until the city’s current bonds expire in 2011.

“The project would most certainly be postponed,” Bingle said. “I believe that in this case (the expansion) is certainly development-driven.”