New industrial development planned for Turner Diagonal area

A new light industrial development and business park is planned for the Turner Diagonal area.

The Unified Government commissioners heard about the $69 million project at an Economic Development and Finance Standing Committee meeting Monday night.

There will be a public hearing on it Thursday. The project includes a community improvement district, according to George Brajkovic, UG economic development director.

Up to 1 million square feet of light industrial use is planned, according to UG officials. NorthPoint Development, which previously did a Kaw Point levee redevelopment and Village West apartment projects, is in charge of the project, which is being called Turner Commerce Center.

The project would use industrial revenue bonds and a community improvement district for financing, Brajkovic said. There would be 100 percent abatement for a 10-year term, he said.

He said the site, an undeveloped area, currently produces about $4,000 in annual taxes to the UG.

“We felt we weren’t losing a lot in total abatement,” Brajkovic said.

The CID would be assessed on a per square footage basis at the site, he said, and CID revenue would be split with the developer. The CID would be a 22-year term, with $1.04 per square foot special assessment on these buildings.

The Turner Commerce Center has the potential for adding 600-plus jobs, according to Brent Miles of NorthPoint Development.

The project site, formerly called Turner Woods, is 130 acres at 6925 Riverview Ave., near the Turner Diagonal and K-32, and south of State Avenue and south of I-70. On the east is South 65th and on the west, South 72nd, but those streets are not part of the project.

The project location is south of a Board of Public Utilities’ building, and a Moose lodge is to the east.

Earlier, a housing development had been proposed for the site, but that idea did not move forward, according to officials.

Four parcels for the site location are owned by Country Club Bank, according to Brajkovic.

“There’s no other 130-acre site within the 435 loop within the city, it just doesn’t exist,” Miles said.

People don’t always see the potential of the area, just as they didn’t see the potential of the levee project, he said. The Turner Commerce Center is a hilly area, with about $3 million worth of grading that needs to be done, no roads that are suitable for access to the area, and the Riverview bridge needs work, he said.

He said NorthPoint is planning a development there similar to its Horizons project recently built in Riverside, Mo.

“Our plan is to build almost exact replicas of what we built in Riverside,” Miles said.

Three buildings of about 400,000 square feet are proposed, he said. Light manufacturing or light assembly will be the use of the buildings.

Miles said the $69 million capital investment includes $60 million for the three buildings and $9 million for site acquisition and site infrastructure and grading. There are no utilities there now.

Under this plan, the UG would be responsible for replacing the Riverview Avenue bridge.

Currently, there are no tenants for the buildings, Miles said. NorthPoint’s Kaw Point project at the levee has been the most successful project to date, he said, with tenants leasing without walls up and without ceiling on.

“We’re oversubscribed,” he said. “I don’t think anybody saw that coming. We were optimistic, but not that optimistic. We do about three times the number of tours at Kaw Point than we do at Horizons.”

There was a $2 million penalty built into the agreement to NorthPoint if the second building is not built, and he said he felt confident enough in the business interest here to agree to that.

If only one building is built, the UG will continue the assessment on the building for the full 22 years, and continue until the second building is built, Brajkovic said.

The decision has not yet been made on the details of the Riverview bridge, or interchange, Miles said.

The UG does not have an obligation to replace the bridge before the first building is confirmed, according to UG information. Also, the UG’s share of CID revenue alone may not fully cover the bridge replacement, according to Brajkovic.

However, the UG knows it will have to do something with the Riverview Avenue bridge sooner or later anyway, he said.

The 600-plus new jobs that are projected would have estimated annual salaries of $42,000 a year, Brajkovic said.

The Turner Commerce Center project also is going through the zoning process at the same time; the zoning will require a change.

The project, which also went before the committee a few months previously, was approved by the committee on Monday, fast-tracked and will go before the full UG Commission on Thursday night at 7 p.m. at City Hall. More information about this project can be found on the Thursday night agenda at www.wycokck.org.

(This story was updated on June 9, 2016 at https://wyandotteonline.com/large-industrial-project-approved-for-turner-diagonal/)