YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
In July 2018, plans for a 100-acre south Springfield development – called The Ridge at Ward Branch – were announced by RW Developments LLC.
The development, estimated to cost $500 million, was slated for land bordered by The Library Center to its north and South Campbell Avenue to its east. RW Developments was owned by Trip Rhodes and Phil Williams, Springfield Business Journal reported at the time.
Plans for the site have changed since the original announcement, but at the time, Williams told SBJ there would be 60 acres of commercial space for restaurants, hotels, offices, retail centers and lofts, with bike trails and natural elements to provide a parklike environment. A senior living continuum-of-care community was planned for the other 40 acres, he said.
For the 60-acre commercial end of The Ridge, a 2021 completion was the target, according to Williams, who could not have anticipated the disruptions COVID-19 would bring to the commercial real estate market.
The Ridge mostly slipped out of headlines in the years since its announcement, with the exception of the September 2023 opening of its first commercial venture, a franchise of Burn Boot Camp opened by Cami White and Karlee Yount in 5,600 square feet at 820 W. El Camino Alto St., Suite 100, west of the library.
New plans
A rezoning measure currently being considered by Springfield City Council, with a public hearing set for Oct. 20 and a vote slated for Nov. 3, would allow 26 single-family housing units on 6 acres of The Ridge on property generally located at 1012 W. Buena Vista St. The rezoning is requested by Ridge HZ LLC, organized by and registered to Matt Miller of Miller Commerce LLC.
Miller told SBJ he has plans for two parcels – one roughly 22 acres, one 5 acres – at The Ridge. The single-family housing rezoning is part of the larger parcel, adjacent to the Quail Creek neighborhood. Eventually, Miller said his plans are to build a multifamily housing development on the remainder of the larger parcel, though he has not set a target date for completion.
Miller said on the other 5-acre parcel, he plans a senior neighborhood that includes assisted living, memory care and independent living components.
Asked what he knew about current plans for the rest of the 100-acre development area of The Ridge at Ward Branch, Miller offered insight into other projects that are in various stages of progress.
He said Dale Helle, operating as Lakewood Ridge Plaza LLC, has plans to develop hundreds of apartments with first-floor retail space. Miller said Helle also plans to build one of two upscale hotels at The Ridge, while developer Dan Coryell of TLC Properties Management LLC is planning another. Miller said one of the hotels would be an extended-stay brand.
SBJ was unable to reach Helle and Coryell to verify their plans by press time. Messages were also left for one of The Ridge’s original planners, Rhodes, contacted periodically over a two-year period, has previously told SBJ he wanted more time before sharing plans that were not yet finalized.
Miller, however, was willing to share what he knew about the development area – mainly the fact that the vision established by Williams and Rhodes has changed.
“The original vision was more retail and office,” he said. “That whole sector slowed down, so they pivoted and sold parcels to what the market wanted.”
Miller said construction costs shot up with COVID-19, along with inflation and interest rates. It’s an observation also made by The Brookings Institution in a 2024 study that showed the national vacancy rate for retail at a five-year low, with the warning that commercial real estate distress had the capacity to destabilize local government fiscal models and the larger economy as well.
But development has picked up, Miller said.
“Things are starting to loosen up a little,” he said. “I don’t know if things are settling down or if all of us are getting used to the new normal.”
Miller said he bought into The Ridge early, contracting and closing on the property nearly at the outset of the project.
“We’ve pivoted some but stuck with the original vision,” he said. “We roll with the changes as much as we can, but we stuck to what we know.”
He said his planned single-family development is distinctive, as there aren’t many single-family homes available in the Kickapoo school area.
“It’s a neat opportunity,” he said.
Miller said he’s not a homebuilder, preferring to develop multifamily properties.
“We’re looking to find one or two homebuilders to take the whole thing on,” he said.
Rezoning for Miller’s single-family housing development was continued at the Oct. 6 meeting of Springfield City Council for an additional public hearing on Oct. 20 and a vote slated for Nov. 3. The rezoning measure, which would shift Miller’s property from planned development to single-family residential, proposes that an existing gate on Buckingham Road remain in place at the south entrance to the development property, as previously reported in SBJ.
At the Sept. 11 meeting of the Planning and Zoning Commission, city staff reported that the existing gate, erected in 2014, is the only one in the city on a public street.
Site work and ownership
Miller said there is a lot of activity at The Ridge, with excavation equipment on site.
An August 2023 entry on the Emery Sapp & Sons Inc. website outlines the work the company has done at the site as general contractor, including 495,000 cubic yards of grading and excavation.
“ESS did a tremendous amount of blasting and rock breaking during this project,” the website states. “This was a challenge in itself considering the size of the job site.”
The scope of work included construction of new public roads, driveways, parking lots, sidewalks, trails and community gathering spaces, and crews realigned medians and intersections, relocated utilities and traffic controls and installed landscaping, curbing, lighting and irrigation, the website states.
“ESS self-performed an impressive 92% of this project and looks forward to continuing our relationship with RW Development,” it says.
A map at the Greene County Assessor’s website names most of the property owners within The Ridge at Ward Branch. Only 6 acres are listed for RW Developments Inc., the company that originated The Ridge.
The owners are as follows:
Improvement district
A Community Improvement District was approved by council for The Ridge at Ward Branch in July 2020. The budget message from the year ending June 30, 2024, states the CID was established to fund public improvements within district boundaries, specifically pedestrian or shopping malls and plazas, community gathering spaces, landscape, streetscape and grading, site work, blasting and other infrastructure or site improvements.
The CID agreement established a 1% sales and use tax on receipts from retail sales and services within the district boundaries. The district anticipated CID sales tax revenue of $23,280 in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2024. From that, cost reimbursement was projected at $5,000.
Matt Schaefer, assistant director of Economic Vitality for the city, said the CID can continue to exist until 40 years following the adoption of its original ordinance, or until costs of its projects are fully reimbursed or until there is full repayment of any bonds or other debts to pay for CID projects. He said neither the petition establishing the CID nor the cooperative agreement between the CID, city and developer contain any sunset provisions if the development is delayed.
Schaefer said ownership changes for properties within the district may affect its governance. The CID is governed by a five-member board of directors with each required to be an owner of real property within the district or a legally authorized representative of a property owner.
He added that if property is sold, the original owner’s representative may immediately become ineligible to serve on the board, creating a vacancy that the new owners would be responsible for filling.
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