Sam's Club heralds first phase of James River Commons

Dirt is flying at the site of James River Commons, and one of the project's developers says construction on a new Sam's Club should begin some time in October.

James River Commons is a multitenant retail development on 63 acres near James River Freeway and South Campbell Avenue, immediately north of the Springfield-Greene County Library Center.

A 150,000-square-foot Sam's Club on the west end of the property will anchor the development. Sam's Club is a division of Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

James River Commons is being co-developed by Columbia-based The Kroenke Group and Springfield-based Ron Stenger Cos., which partnered to purchase the former driving range property in 2005.

In December of that year, Springfield City Council approved a community improvement district for James River Commons that would establish a sales tax of up to 1 cent to fund future site improvements. Through Columbia attorney Craig Van Matre, the developers recently asked council to extend the life of the CID by five years in response to project delays. The council is expected to vote on the request Sept. 29.

"Our optimism in when we were going to get the Sam's Club built greatly exceeded the reality of the situation, and as a result, things have been backed up," Van Matre said at council's Sept. 15 meeting. "And because of the change in the economic condition, the rental of other stores is being delayed."

The Sam's Club was originally scheduled to open in spring, but the completion date has been moved to late summer or early fall, Van Matre said. Wal-Mart is expected to select a general contractor shortly, with construction slated to begin some time next month, he added. Aurora-based Kenny Singer Construction was hired to perform site excavation work, which is nearly complete.

Prelease struggles

Tenant demand for the development's remaining 150,000 square feet of retail space - divided between two strip centers to be built east of Sam's - has been lower than anticipated, Van Matre said.

"We are not preleasing like we'd hoped, so it looks like it will be a longer process," he said.

The quest for a "mini-anchor" tenant, such as a sporting goods retailer or hardware store, has proved to be perhaps the biggest challenge, Van Matre said, noting that the ideal retailer would occupy about 40,000 square feet at James River Commons.

Developer Stu Stenger of Ron Stenger Cos. said tenant leases would initially be for a term of five years at a rate of about $20 per square foot and that ground leases would be executed with restaurants that build on the development's outlots.

"We have had restaurants contacting us -- some chains, some local restaurants and some that have not been in the area before," Stenger said.

Van Matre said bond financing for James River Commons is based on a letter of credit from the developer, but he declined to provide the total estimated cost of the project. He did, however, note that the city has no financial risk.

"These will be CID bonds, and they won't have any effect at all on the city's credit," Van Matre said. "This puts the risk of this project squarely on the developer."

The second Sam's

Springfield's only Sam's Club, 3660 E. Sunshine St., was built in 1987. Plans for the South Campbell Sam's Club feature a fuel station, car wash, pharmacy, optical center, one-hour photo center, expanded café, and a tire and battery center, according to previous Springfield Business Journal reports.

The new Sam's has been designed with a number of environmentally sustainable elements, including energy-efficient lighting in freezer cases, motion-sensor lighting on freezers and coolers, more than 200 skylights and a water-reclaiming system at the car wash, as well as recycling services for tires, batteries, cardboard, single-use cameras, food waste, plastic waste and building materials.[[In-content Ad]]