Springfield Plaza developers introduce CID plan

Springfield City Council held a public hearing last night for a bill that would establish a Springfield Plaza community improvement district.

The CID would collect a half-cent sales tax to help pay the roughly $10 million tab on the expansive, mixed-use development’s infrastructure.

Under the banner of Springfield Plaza, the developers are seeking to establish the special taxing district on 96 acres southwest of the Wal-Mart Supercenter at 3520 W. Sunshine St., with new streets serving as entrances designed to connect to West Bypass and Sunshine.

Springfield Plaza Real Estate LLC – led by commercial real estate brokers Tom Rankin and Jeff Childs – secured council’s approval in May 2013 for a tax increment financing district to reimburse infrastructure costs on their planned $78.5 million retail and office complex. Those efforts paved the way for the creation of a CID, which the developers said at the time was part of their funding plan.

The district would have a maximum life of 50 years and administrators would be able to collect up to a 1-cent sales tax to reimburse infrastructure, though Rankin has said he wants the CID to be in place for no more than 18 years and to collect only a half-cent sales tax.

At last night’s meeting, Rankin wasn’t sure how much revenue the district would generate to support the CID sales tax.

“It’s really kind of hard to say depending on what kinds of retailers we have. We can do probably up to about 600,000 square feet of development total. Our first phase, we are working on a 150,000-square-foot retail center just west of Wal-Mart and south of Washita [Street]. We’ve spent about $1.8 million on infrastructure thus far,” Rankin said. “Of that 150,000 square feet for retail, depending on the retailers we ultimately get signed, it could be $30 million in (sales) or something like that – or $40 million in sales. But, it’s hard to say.”

This morning, Rankin said the city requested the district be formally established since the TIF was designed to be reimbursed by the CID sales tax.

“We won’t activate the CID, or the TIF, until we have retailers that we’re ready to break ground on,” he said via email.

A second reading and vote on the district is scheduled for the Oct. 12 council meeting.