September 20, 2008 – Junction City, Pittsburg pleased with Christie work
Retail and residential development partnerships between development company Christie Development Associates, LLC and Junction City have worked out well, according to Rod Barnes, city manager of Junction City. A former city manager at Pittsburg echoed Barnes’ reading of the relationship.
The company in Junction City has rejuvenated and developed an old Econo-Foods store and put in a new 600-unit apartment complex, The Bluffs, with one- and two-bedroom apartments, a clubhouse, fitness center and swimming pool.
“It’s one of the nicest complexes in the city,” Barnes said.
Christie, led by company founder Dave Christie, currently is working with Emporia city officials on a commercial development proposed northeast of the intersection of 24th Avenue and Industrial Road.
Dealings with the company, he said, “all have been positive.”
“He came in and took a closed Econo-Foods store and turned it into Goody’s Plaza,” Barnes said. “… He did the original store and then he added on 10,000 feet. Did a great job.”
The complex also contains a Hibbetts sports store, Sears and a beauty salon.
Barnes said that Junction City gave Christie a grant of approximately $1 million for the retail project.
“We gave him an economic development grant and, of course, to receive that grant he had to reach certain milestones, which he did,” he said. “The milestones were meeting, making sure the tenant mix was what he said he was going to bring, having one major anchor. …”
The grant came through a general obligation debt by Junction City, Barnes said.
A third proposed development, Smoky Hill Market Place, has not yet come to fruition.
It was to have been a massive entertainment and retail complex covering about 300 acres of land. Barnes said the proposal was to have 14 restaurants, baseball and soccer fields, a water park, theater, and 600,000 square feet of retail space.
The project had been in planning stages for several years and potentially could have used STAR bond for tax incremental financing, he said.
“He ran into problems with land acquisition and just wasn’t able to go forward,” Barnes said.
The city has showed other locations to Christie and to other investors who may be interested in the project.
“We have some other people working on that,” Barnes said. “Whether it’s Mr. Christie or someone else, it’s probably going to happen sometime in the community.”
The City of Pittsburg had a similar experience with Christie Development Associates, LLC, according to its former city manager, Allen Gill.
Gill was Pittsburg’s city manager until June of this year, when he accepted the city manager’s job in Carbondale, Ill. He was closely involved in a Christie Development Associates, LLC that brought a Home Depot to the city about 2 1/2 years ago.
Gill estimated the 28-acre project — Pittsburg Town Center — was 80 to 85 percent complete when he left Pittsburg.
In addition to the Home Depot, the City of Pittsburg Web site lists an assortment of businesses that occupy buildings on the fringes of the property — a rent-to-own store, Subway and Chili’s restaurants, a carry-out pizza business, UPS store and a Chinese restaurant.
“Then there were to be two what we call “junior anchor” stores, one of which was Goody’s clothing, and Goody’s was there and was open for two years,” Gill said.
“Pittsburg, like anybody else, has been hit by the economy. We’ve had some major chains go out of business. Goody’s is one of them, and Goody’s has a store here in Carbondale.”
Gill saw a number of positives that had come from the Christie Development Associates, LLC.
“One of the things that that center did for Pittsburg was bring in national-name retailers,” he said.
The city had a JCPenney store on the other side of town in the Meadowbrooke Mall. Town Center brought businesses to the north side of the city and, in the process, “helped clean up an abandoned zinc and lead smelter site,” Gill said.
“That was part of the reason for the TIF incentives that were given,” he said. “It was a blighted area sitting on the doorstep of town.”
The site formerly had housed an old Gibson’s store that had been converted into dollar stores and a plumbing shop.
“We relocated the plumbing supply store, so we salvaged them, relocated them across the street,” he said. “They’re still in business, competing with Home Depot very nicely. So we ended up getting both.”
Gill said that Pittsburg’s leaders had been concerned about the effects of a Home Depot store on existing businesses.
“The nice Ace Hardware store is still there and doing quite well,” he added.
The city gave about $7 million in incentive money for the $28 million project.
With a TDD, the city extended a street through the development and installed new traffic signals at a major intersection adjacent to the property.
“There’s property to the rear that we wanted to develop some day, in addition. We’ve got another 40 acres behind it,” he said, explaining the reason for extending the street beyond the retail area.
The extra 1-cent sales tax charged by businesses on the property is returned to the city to repay the cost of the TDD.
“They were paying what they needed to pay for,” Gill said.
He added that Christie Development Associates, LLC also has been looking at a second development in Pittsburg.
“He has bought some ground north of that area adjacent to our hotel developments, and was looking at some additional development north. At least at the time I left, that had not come together,” Gill said.