A local developer wants to revamp the long-vacant Wild Oats building in Mission.
The Mission City Council, during a finance and administration committee meeting on Wednesday pushed forward a funding agreement for potential public incentives with local developer Dan Carr of Kansas City, Missouri-based U.S. Federal Properties Co.
Carr plans to refurbish the Wild Oats building at 5101 Johnson Dr. and the surrounding property to bring at least one new retail tenant, possibly more, to that space, according to city documents.
The city council will consider the funding agreement at a future meeting for final consideration.
Developer wants public financing to help pay for site upgrades
- Based on early conversations with the city, Carr is interested in both tax increment financing, or TIF, and a community improvement district, or CID, in order to revamp the former Wild Oats site.
- City Administrator Laura Smith said the building is already in an existing TIF district.
- Smith told the city council that the potential retail tenants are unknown at this time, but specific tenant information will come forward as the public incentive process progresses. As part of an agreement to allow public financing, the city council will also get a say on which types of retail tenants city leaders want to attract to the redeveloped site.
- Smith told the Post after the meeting that Wild Oats closed after the closure of the old Mission Mall, which is on the site of the now-defunct Mission Gateway project. Smith said no ideas for the Wild Oats space have materialized in the roughly two decades since.
- In previous years, there were rumors about Sprouts Farmers Market taking over the space but nothing ever came to fruition.
The city is under no obligation to offer public incentives
- A funding agreement allows the city to use the developer’s money to review the developer’s applications for the redevelopment project and any related public incentives.
- By entering a funding agreement, the city is under no obligation to approve any public incentives for the Wild Oats project.
- In this specific agreement, the developer, Mission 101 LLC, must give the city $10,000 to review applications related to this project.
- If costs to review this project exceed $10,000, then the developer needs to replenish the fund, according to city documents.
- U.S. Federal Properties, the firm interested in the former Wild Oats site, specializes in “the development of properties leased to the U.S. federal government and other credit-worthy tenants,” according to its website.
Next steps:
- The city council meets at 7 p.m. on the third Wednesday of each month at city hall, 6090 Woodson St.
- If this funding agreement moves forward, then the city anticipates reviews and discussions for TIF and CID incentives to occur over the next two months.
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