It looks like the road connecting Routes 31 and 4 on Cook’s Point has found new life.
The City of Marysville passed an ordinance last week sticking with the original TIF agreement established three years ago after Dean and Dave Cook expressed a willingness to go ahead with the project.
The city was trying to finalize a new TIF agreement in December, but was turned down by Marysville Schools.
Schools are often involved in TIFs, as they get dollars generated from development. Under the old TIF agreement, signed in 2015, Marysville Schools get about 49 percent of tax revenue generated by the property as the project develops. The new agreement would have had the schools getting 100 percent of the tax money remaining after the debt service is paid.
“This needs to revert back to the original compensation agreement that was passed in 2015,” said Mayor J.R. Rausch at the meeting.
In an interview with the Journal-Tribune, Marysville Finance Director Justin Nahvi said the city initially figured if the agreement wasn’t changed, the Cook family wouldn’t want to proceed. He said the developer is pledging collateral on the loan, and is on the hook to help pay if the property tax revenue doesn’t reach a certain point by year 16.
“Because of that, the developer would have to start contributing money to the city to pay on the debt,” he said. “I didn’t think they were going to assume that risk.”
After the December meeting with the schools, city officials met with the Cooks, who said they were willing to go ahead with the road. According to Nahvi, a projection of possible development has the Cook family putting up $128,000 per year in debt service at year 16.
“They really did a benefit to the community,” Nahvi said.
According to Nahvi, the engineering work for the road is set to start soon. He said it will be a five-lane road with a median in the middle. Nahvi reiterated plans laid out last year saying the city will put in utilities along the road’s path first, then do the actual paving.
That project should happen “when things start to thaw out in March or April.” Nahvi said the road should be complete by the end of the year.
“I think this roadway is being designed to last,” he said.
The city originally planned to issue $4,870,000 in bonds to fund the road. Now the city is taking out a loan with the Richwood Banking Company that allows it to draw from the loan as the project happens.
“We’re not taking out the full $4.8 million,” he said. “If we don’t need all the money, we won’t pull it all from the bank.”
In an interview with Dean and Dave Cook, Dave said they’ve spoken to a few parties interested in buying land in the area. He said those potential buyers were hesitant to go forward if the road didn’t go in.
In any case, Dean said they were “open for business,” and looked forward to the future.
Nahvi said he hopes to begin a dialogue with the Cooks in the coming weeks.
“My hope is over the next week to two weeks, we start really talking about core development that they’ve already kind of landed,” Nahvi said.
The planned unit development in place on the property is heavily geared toward commercial, and Dave said residents can expect those sorts of developments. Personally, he said he’d like some sort of grocery store to move in. He also said stores like Target or Kohl’s would be good, though they haven’t heard much interest from retailers like those.
Nahvi estimated that the land would have to reach about $30 million in value for the Cooks to be in the clear. Dave said larger big box stores would also help them reach the required threshold for the Cooks to waive financial responsibility in 16 years.
“A couple of those would probably pretty well cover us,” Dave said.