Nixa administrator keeps eye on new development

by Diane Rarick

SBJ Contributing Writer

The Nixa Industrial Park is filling up, the result of convenient highway access and affordable land prices, said managing broker Gregg Stancer, of CJR Commercial Group.

"It's much cheaper to buy a parcel in Nixa than most areas of Springfield," Stancer said. He quoted lot prices from $1.05 to $1.30 per square foot, compared to prices in south Springfield of $2 to $3 per square foot.

The Nixa Industrial Park is a private venture, owned and developed by P&E Investments, and all city services are provided to tenants and owners.

Originally started in 1990 with 90 acres, only eight one-acre lots were available as of mid-October, according to Stancer. "There is some room for expansion," he said.

Brian Bingle, Nixa interim city administrator, said that Nixa has always relied on private individuals to develop its industrial and commercial areas. Voluntary annexations of property have been the city's goal, according to Bingle, because infrastructure costs are provided by the property owners.

"Involuntary annexation imposes on Nixa's citizens the cost for upgrading the property," he said.

There is additional commercial land outside the city limits south of Tracker Road and Highway 160 in Nixa.

"The infrastructure is available for extension to accommodate the development of those properties, and the city is always willing to engage in negotiation on how we could make that infrastructure more readily available to the landowner," Bingle said. "By being inside, the city would have available to it the sales tax generated from future development."

Bingle said the new Dollar General Store is not inside city limits, "so when the building is occupied, that sales tax will not be available to the city."

A plan to make technical specifications for development consistent throughout Christian County was introduced in early summer at a Christian County Planning and Zoning Commission meeting by the Christian County Partnership for Progress ad hoc committee, according to Bingle.

"But it was not agreed to by the Planning and Zoning Commission, and therefore, when it was forwarded to the commissioners, it was not with the Planning and Zoning Commission's favorable recommendation," Bingle said.