Is This the Last Chance for Hadley Township Redevelopment?
It may be Richmond Heights' last attempt, according to Mayor James Beck, who was interviewed by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Thursday.
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Pace Properties would like to buy the northern half of 40 acres in the Hadley Township in Richmond Heights for a retail development. The homeowners are in limbo, not knowing if it will go through or not.
It's the third time in six years a developer has tried this.
In a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article, Mayor James Beck stated that the current effort by Pace Properties to develop Hadley Township may be the last, if it fails.
"This is very likely the city's last effort to seek redevelopment," Mayor James Beck wrote recently to residents of Hadley, at Highway 40 (Interstate 64) and Hanley Road.
Read the rest of the article from the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
Read related articles on Patch:
- Hadley Township Development Announcement Planned Monday
- Pace Properties to Set Up Hanley Road Office, Hopes to Open $125 Million Retail Space
- Menards and Pace Properties Chosen to Develop Hadley in Richmond Heights
- Costco and Menards Proposals Heard by Council
- Menards Cost-Benefit Analysis Planned in Richmond Heights
- Menards & Co.: Hardware Trio Illustrates Taxpayer Funding's Perks, Challenges
William Rapp
9:03 am on Friday, July 6, 2012
This sounds like the "We'll move the Cardinals over to East St. Louis if you don't let us build a new stadium" type thing again. Homeowners, unite and come up with a collective price for the acreage that will allow you all to relocate right in the greater Brentwood area.
RDBet
3:05 pm on Friday, July 6, 2012
Sounds good, but there aren't a lot of homeowners (in the typical sense) to unite. Hadley has been in play for a long time, and now there are more landlord/speculators there than anyone else.
Not that the landlords shouldn't get fair buyouts. But it is just a different situation than being depicted, with the TIF financing (aka the taxpayer) helping fund premium buyouts for investors rather than the old Hadley residents.
This redevelopment has been a fiasco since before the real estate market bubble burst. Another case of overmatched local governments pitted against each other by big box developers. The location of Hadley is excellent - it is highly likely that some natural (and non-taxpayer subsidized) redevelopment would have eventually occurred there without the meddling.
RDBet
3:50 pm on Friday, July 6, 2012
Property records show that a substantial owner of the area is "Mills Richmond Heights" - are they related somehow to the former failed developer(s)?
http://www.richmondheights.org/DocumentCenter/Home/View/329