City, Area Development Corp. have both signed on to development site purchase

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

The city of Charles City and the Charles City Area Development Corp. have now both officially approved an agreement that will give more than $2 million to the Area Development Corp. to purchase property for a state-certified industrial development site.

The City Council had approved the Grant and Development Agreement and Option to Purchase Real Estate on Sept. 16, and the ADC approved the agreement at its monthly meeting Wednesday.

“This is probably the most important agreement we’ve ever signed since I’ve been here,” said Tim Fox, CCADC executive director, who has been in his position for more than 20 years.

“There is a lot of reporting,” he said about the requirements of the agreement. “We do have to do a lot of reporting, but they’re giving us $2 million, 156 thousand dollars, so I think that’s the least we can do.”

The city will now begin the process required to sell bonds to raise the $2.156 million purchase price of the land. The money will be given to the ADC to purchase the property on the northeast corner of the intersection of South Grand Avenue and the Avenue of the Saints, and the Area Development Corp. will market the property to sell for commercial or industrial business use.

The property is in the South Grand Urban Renewal Area, and tax increment financing funds from that district will be used to repay the bonds. If or when the property is sold the money received from the sale will also go toward repaying the bonds.

The site is being called the Avenue of the Saints Development Park.

Realtor Connie Parson, who donated her time to work with the ADC to locate and negotiate an option to buy the property, has called it one of the premiere development sites in the Midwest because of its location next to the Avenue of the Saints and its other amenities.

The site is not yet state-certified — a designation that tells prospective buyers that all the surveys and tests have been completed, utilities are present or can be added within six months, and the site is essentially shovel-ready.
There are a couple of steps that still need to be completed for that to happen, Fox said.

He told the ADC board Wednesday that he’s still waiting on a final determination from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers regarding a small area of land on the site that has been labeled a conditional wetlands jurisdiction.

The area involved is 0.81 acres out of the total 75.34 acres in the project — or about 1% of the total land.

If the Army Corps determines the area is under its jurisdiction as a wetland, then that area will have to be protected from any development, or else the wetlands would need to be mitigated, such as by developing similar wetlands elsewhere that falls under the same statute.

“They might go through the process and find that it’s nonjurisdictional, which would be great,” Fox said.
Also, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has requested more study regarding potential endangered species, Fox said.
An initial report said there is no habitat on the property for the 30 endangered plants and animals that are native to that area of Floyd County, but the government service wants more research done to verify that some specific animals and plants don’t have habitat there.

Fox said he is still hopeful that everything will be ready by Nov. 15.

Also at the Area Development Corp meeting:

• Fox said he continues to work with brokers trying to sell the Simply Essentials chicken processing plant that closed Aug. 5, but they aren’t getting any cooperation from the current owner, Pitman Family Farm of California.

“We have what the brokers call an elusive seller, ’cause he doesn’t return correspondence and doesn’t seem to really care if the building sells or not,” Fox said.

Fox said there are a number of economic incentives available to help make a sale work, including Opportunity Zone, New Markets Tax Credits, tax increment financing, Work Opportunity Tax Credit and the state’s High Quality Jobs Program.

Fox said initially it was thought that the owner wasn’t getting involved in the marketing because he already had a buyer lined up, “but there’s no buyer.”

“I’m in touch with these guys every day,” he said about the brokers he is working with. “We’ll see how it shakes out.”

Fox also noted that Floyd County had the third-highest unemployment rate in the state in August because of the Simply Essentials closing. The county’s rate went from 2.8% in July to 3.9% in August he said, a result of 100 more people being listed as unemployed.

• The Area Development Corp. approved a $25,000 loan from the ADC’s revolving loan fund, at 3% interest for 60 months, plus a 6-month grace period, for North Iowa Lawn and Sport LLC, a new small engine sales and repair business that is planning to locate at 1107 S. Grand Ave., the site of the former Marzen Towing and Automotive Co.

The business is planning to be a certified Toro dealer and repair lawn and garden equipment, motorcycles, snowmobiles, ATVs and UTVs.

• Fox reported that the SW Bypass TIF Board has approved a five-year property tax rebate for Croell Inc. to help finance the construction of an 80,000-square-foot storage building for cement powder at its facility on 210th Street/11th Street.

The value of the rebate will be about $240,000 over the five years, and after that the full property tax will go to the taxing district, Fox said. The value of the project is more than $2.5 million.