Ozark, Hagerman part ways on Finley River plan

The city has parted ways with Finley River Development LLC, led by architect Bo Hagerman of Springfield-based Hagerman New Urbanism. Ozark had been working with the design firm since 2005 to redevelop a blighted area between the Finley River and the city’s public square. The plan called for a mix of residential, commercial and retail components.

Now the city is sending out new requests for proposals, which were scheduled to go out as early as March 21. Ozark City Attorney David Collignon said the city would broadcast the RFPs through local media rather than sending a mailing to a specific list of developers.

Collignon said a decision to end the development agreement with Hagerman was based on financing issues. Private financing lined up by the developer for the first part of Phase I left the city covering about $1 million – a sum deemed too large to handle.

The first part of Phase I of the project would have cost about $4 million, and all of Phase I carried a $30 million price tag.

The Ozark Board of Aldermen voted 5-1 to terminate the development agreement at its March 3 meeting. Ward 2 Alderman Jake Archer was the lone dissenting vote.

At the same time the board was voting to terminate the development agreement with Hagerman, according to Collignon, Hagerman was sending a letter to the city withdrawing from the contract. Collignon said he received Hagerman’s letter at about 8:45 p.m., roughly 30 minutes after the board’s vote.

Hagerman, who owns about three acres of the development area, said he’s still in negotiations with the city to determine what will happen with his property.

As for the rest of the land in the redevelopment area, Collignon said nothing has been ruled out, including having multiple developers work on the property.

“We’ve had several calls and requests – some of those were related to a specific lot, while others indicated they were interested in doing, say, all the commercial development,” Collignon said. “The bottom line is we’re a little bit gun-shy at this point, having gone through this once before. Someone coming in and saying they’re interested doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll respond to the RFP and get their act together financially to put a project together.”

Hagerman said he’s not sure whether his firm will respond to the RFPs.

“It basically depends on whether or not the city buys us out of our position, to be blunt,” he said.

“We still hold a lot of cards in the development, and we’ll decide how to proceed based on our current negotiations with the city,” Hagerman added.

Interested developers should call city offices at (417) 581-2407.[[In-content Ad]]