St. Coletta land is step closer to development

By Steve Sharp of the Daily Times staff
Wednesday, September 17, 2008 12:24 PM CDT

JEFFERSON - The Jefferson Common Council on Tuesday evening approved a resolution that will enable the city to move closer to realizing development of the St. Coletta property on the city's east side.

The common council approved the resolution “creating, describing and making certain findings,” as well as approving the project plan for TIF District No. 6, unanimously Tuesday night. The next step in the process will be for the Joint Review Board - comprised of members from the Jefferson School District, Jefferson County, the vocational school district and the city - to meet next Tuesday to consider and potentially approve the boundaries of the project plan. If that occurs, according to city officials, the developer may apply for local approvals related to zoning and other concerns, and get a planned-unit development concept together.

“The TIF district portion is a small fraction of the entire property on which the development is planned,” Jefferson City Administrator Tim Freitag said, adding the TIF district part of the project is located on the southeast corner of the intersection of County Highway Y and Highway 18, but is integral to the overall project becoming feasible.

If the plan is approved by the Joint Review Board next week, then the developer can work through local approvals that are needed and a development agreement can take place.

“The goal is to make all that happen prior to the end of the year,” Freitag said. “But the development, as it is proposed, isn't going to happen without a TIF district, so this approval by the council was very integral to the plan.”

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In late July, Jefferson leaders approved a memorandum of understanding related to the proposed creation of the large tax incremental financing (TIF) district at St. Coletta to allow it to be transformed into a commercial/residential complex.

As part of its new approach to helping developmentally disabled people, St. Coletta has found itself no longer needing the 174-acre property that is its Jefferson campus. The developer, the Simon Group of Brookfield, has made an offer to purchase the historic facility on the eastern edge of Jefferson and redevelop it. The commercial zone of the TIF district alone would encompass 33 acres, with the remainder of the development dedicated to single and multifamily residences not in the TIF district.

The Simon Group has been working on engineering, environmental and economic studies to determine the feasibility of creating commercial and residential living space in a neighborhood it would call Sanctuary Ridge. The preliminary concept for Sanctuary Ridge calls for the 33-acre commerce center utilizing the historic turn-of-the-century masonry buildings located on the campus. In addition, approximately 40 acres are planned for condominiums and 100 acres for single family homes.

Scott Simon, president of the Simon Group, has said his goal is to maintain the character and architectural integrity St. Coletta has embodied throughout the Sanctuary Ridge development.

The Simon Group is currently seeking tenants and interested partners with the intent of completing the commercial section within four years.

Preliminary plans call for St. Coletta to eventually relocate its headquarters to adjacent property owned by the provider of community-based programs and services for adults with developmental disabilities. The sale involves 174 of the 650 acres currently held by St. Coletta in the Jefferson area.

The Simon Group and the city plan to use the TIF district funding for utilities and other infrastructure. Engineering studies are being conducted and estimates for infrastructure improvements are forthcoming.

The project is to be completed in two phases, with the first dealing with many of the campus' existing buildings. Before work can start, however, the Joint Review Board must also agree the TIF district's creation is in the best interest of the public.

The 156 proposed condominium units and other commercial facilities, when completed, could comprise a TIF district with a value of $80 million. This could provide $1.5 million in tax revenue per year. The cost to the city could be $5.7 million and these costs would be associated with street and utility improvements, as well as asbestos elimination and other costs.

Financial advisers to the city have said they believe the district would support itself and meet all of its obligations by the year 2020, which would be much sooner than TIF rules require.

Several entities have already expressed interest in having their businesses located within the complex.

Businesses that have expressed interest in locating within the project have said they are attracted by the city's access to the interstate, as well as highways 18 and 26 which run through Jefferson. They are also interested in being associated with a historic property.

The St. Coletta campus property was annexed into the city in 2006. St. Coletta employs 441 and adds in excess of $15 million annually to the local economy.

According to information provided by the city, if the project does not go forward, the property would likely be sold piecemeal, which is not a good scenario for the city, officials said.

Freitag said, if it is a success, the project could create 500 to 800 new, permanent jobs. He added 1,100 to 1,200 construction jobs would be needed to conduct development work.

Freitag said following Tuesday's meeting that, so far, the process of getting the St. Coletta property developed has gone fairly smoothly.

“Basically, we are attempting to take a piece of property that is tax exempt and turn it into a location that generates tax base, so this will becomes very significant to the city,” Freitag said. “Right now, there are some worries about the economy and we don't know if it can all be developed right away. But the developer has secured some good plans and over the course of time we believe it will be successful. This is, essentially, the largest development project in the community's history.”

City officials said there are plans to develop three of the existing St. Coletta buildings by one planner. Another entity is eying another existing structure for development. A third planner is hoping to buy some vacant St. Coletta land to building an office facility. Jefferson Mayor Gary Myers said that, for the city to go ahead and start spending money to help facilitate the project pre-sales such as these are required.

“If all three of these developers are successful, then the threshold (for pre-sales) will be met,” Myers said. “We are very positive about the pre-sale component.”

Myers said he looks forward to the Joint Review Board's appraisal of the project.

“The Joint Review Board has been briefed on it and its members seem to have no concerns,” he said. “I anticipate they will give it the thumbs up next week and that is the last step and paperwork can be filed with the state and we can rock and roll. It appears the TIF district will be created well before the late September deadline.”

Myers said city officials are feeling good about the project overall.

“All the signs, at this point, point to a real successful process here and development - we will know when the closing takes place in late October or early November, barring anything unforeseen. Then we can start moving dirt. This is a nice shot in the arm for the city and it also preserves a historic landmark. The St. Coletta property has been on the market a long time and we were getting discouraged, and I think the folks at St. Coletta were becoming a little discouraged, as well. This just has a huge upside if we can pull this together.”

Also Tuesday, the council approved a resolution relating to sanitary sewers in the Riverview Heights Subdivision, which was formally annexed into the city in June.

Out of 49 lots comprising the subdivision that had been located in the town of Aztalan, 39 requested to be part of the petition for annexation. Ten lots of the existing subdivision were not annexed into the city.

As part of the resolution on Tuesday, all properties or lots will not be required to hook up to the city's sanitary sewer system if, at the discretion of the director of public works, the existing system has a remaining useful life. However, all properties and lots, regardless of the useful life of their sanitary sewer systems will be required to hook up to the sewer main no later than the start of 2019. The cost of the sanitary sewer system extensions would be specially assessed to the properties that would benefit from them based on their street frontage. The property owners would be allowed to pay the special assessment over a 20-year period ending Dec. 31, 2028.