Master-planned developments slated for Springfield, Republic

Sun West Mini-Store opened in October at 4109 W. Sunshine. Golden Pond, a master-planned development at Golden Avenue and Republic Road will open this month, and another master-planned development, Old Stone, is in the works for Republic, near highways MM and 60.

“We’re at the construction plan stage with the city of Republic, so we’ve borrowed the money, bought the land, rezoned it and submitted plans to the city. We should start construction in November,” Coatney said.

The completion date for Old Stone is spring 2005.

Both Golden Pond and Old Stone will have commercial lots and apartment buildings.

“I basically sell off the commercial right away. I really don’t have any rent prices because those people will be building their own building and deciding on their rent prices,” Coatney said.

He added that he retains ownership and management of the apartment complexes.

Great Southern Bank financed all three projects. Coatney acts as his own general contractor.

What sets Golden Pond and Old Stone apart from the crowd is the master planning involved, according to Brent Stevens of

H Design Group, the architect for both projects.

“They’ve bought a huge chunk of land and we’ve master planned it so that it works with the commercial to the multifamily,” Stevens said.

“Other than that, we’re trying to keep consistent pedestrian flow between the different apartments and making it very pedestrian-friendly.”

Stevens, a member of Republic’s planning and zoning committee, said that he abstained during voting on Countryland’s projects.

Coatney is responsible for the infrastructure of the new development, which must be completed before construction may begin on the apartments or commercial lots.

Stevens said this is typical anywhere. “When you’re coming in with a large development and you’ve got city streets coming in, it’s kind of a give-and-take relationship with the developer. That’s what they put on the table to get the project to pass, to make it more amenable to everyone,” he said.

Coatney declined to disclose the costs associated with providing infrastructure, but did say that both Golden Pond and Old Stone are each $3.8 million projects.

Golden Pond Center

At build-out, Golden Pond Center will have about 700 apartments. It also includes 9,300 square feet of retail space – 3,000 square feet of which Coatney will use to house his office.

“Three-thousand-(square) feet is going to be a high-end coffee shop named Cassil’s, and then we have a four-chair hair salon going in one bay,” Coatney said, declining to name the salon or its owners. One bay remains empty. “The rent prices were going for $10.50 to $12.50 per foot,” he said.

Currently under construction, Stevens said, are 122 apartment units, an activity building and covered parking. An additional 122 units are on the drawing board.

Old Stone

Location is what drew Coatney to Republic. “We’re one mile exactly from James River Expressway. It’s on the right side of Republic, so it’s between Republic and Springfield, so all of the Republic traffic drives right past it. It was a nice parcel that had sewer potential,” Coatney said.

He hopes to lure a national family restaurant to town and has been communicating with chains. “We’ve got several (in mind), but I’m not at liberty to tell who they are,” he said.

Location, traffic count and growth cycles for the city are factors that would attract a national restaurant chain to town, he said.

“The city of Republic is growing east toward Springfield and James River Expressway, so we felt that it was the perfect location to put a large development to sell commercial sites,” Coatney said.

“We knew that when we put our … apartments there, it would instantly create a market that would make it attractive for the commercial people, whether it would be strip centers, restaurants, gas stations, convenience stores – any of that stuff would think that was a prime spot to put businesses.”

Wally Schrock, principal planner for the city of Republic, said that the highway carries about 26,000 cars a day. While Old Stone will be built at one of the busiest spots near Republic, Schrock said, “It is kind of out of the current city. It’s not immediately adjacent. … It’s kind of a future thing, where we see growth going out in that direction but it’s not there yet. This will kind of be the first test of what’s going to go on out there.”

Sun West

Countryland Property Management opened Sun West Mini-Store, a 90,000-square-foot facility, in October.

“What we’re trying to do is be a rental management company that offers mini store, apartments, commercial property and eventually the people who (will) rent apartments from us will move into home ownership,” Coatney said, adding that Countryland has built more than 200 single-family homes in the area, including Hattiesburg Hills and Countryland subdivisions.

“We’re kind of a one-stop shop,” Coatney said. “You can come to us and rent an apartment, rent a storage facility, rent a strip center, build a home, any of those things.”