Economic committee forwards Chapter 100 application for proposed Taylor Road mixed-use project to council

The Wildwood Economic Development Committee on March 25 voted to forward a Chapter 100 application from the team developing an approximately $50 million mixed-use project along Taylor Road to the full City Council for detailed review and negotiation.

The petitioners — represented at the meeting by Mr. Cohen (developer/property owner), Tom Kyman of Mia Rosa and attorneys Andrew Rubin and John Young of Sandberg Phoenix — asked the committee for sales-tax exemptions on construction materials and personal property and a limited property-tax abatement to make the project financially viable in current market conditions. Committee members voted to send the request to a Council work session and to authorize city staff to begin the procedural steps required for Chapter 100 consideration.

Committee members and the project team said the site is the remaining undeveloped portion of an approximately 11.8-acre parcel in the town center and that the plan has been developed as a mixed-use residential/retail project. The developer said lenders have issued a firm loan commitment and that more than $1 million has been spent on engineering and design. At the meeting the petitioner estimated the overall development at about $50 million and described extraordinary unplanned costs — including overhead utility relocations and subsurface issues — that add several million dollars to project expenses. “We’ve invested north of a million dollars already in this project,” Mr. Cohen said.

Project counsel described how Chapter 100 treatment is typically structured in Missouri and stressed that the mechanism creates a tax-exemption vehicle rather than a traditional municipal borrowing obligation. “There is no actual bonds. No one’s going to the market,” Andrew Rubin, attorney for the petitioner, told the committee, explaining the lease/leaseback paperwork and the role of bond counsel (the city’s counsel would be Gilmore Bell if the project moves forward). Rubin added that the city would not assume financial liability under the structure described, and that the principal practical effects are exemptions from sales tax on construction materials and a temporary property-tax abatement the petitioner is requesting.

City staff and the petitioner identified several procedural and timing steps that must follow committee endorsement: preparation and distribution of a formal development plan/tax-impact analysis to affected taxing districts, formal notices required by state law, preparation of bond/counsel documents by Gilmore Bell, and council-level negotiation of any payment‑in‑lieu‑of‑tax (PILOT) or other mitigation measures if taxing districts object. Planning staff said they expect a record plat to be ready for City Council consideration by the April 14 meeting and that the site development plan is in a near‑final state; staff estimated that a grading permit could be pulled in April if required minor revisions and the recordation steps are completed. Petitioner counsel said that if the council and taxing districts move quickly, the project team could target a June 1 site work start and that the developer has planned phased construction so the first residential/retail phase could be ready about 14 months after ground breaking, with full buildout near 18–19 months after start.

Committee discussion noted local competition from a nearby apartment development that has already received Chapter 100 benefits, and members asked about impacts to taxing districts (schools, library, fire district). Rubin and city staff said the formal notice and impact analysis will show projected revenue differences over the abatement period and that taxing districts often negotiate PILOT agreements if they have concerns. The petitioner also asked that any Chapter 100 package be intentionally narrow — focused on the gaps needed to make the pro forma workable rather than a broad long-term exemption.

After questions from committee members the body voted to forward the Chapter 100 application and related materials to the full City Council for a Council work session and subsequent negotiation. The committee chair and city administrator summarized the next steps at the meeting: staff will prepare the documents required for noticing and Gilmore Bell would be engaged to draft the legal papers if council gives direction at a work session.

The committee’s favorable recommendation means the item is likely to appear at a City Council work session the week of April 14; if the council directs staff to proceed, a negotiated ordinance and associated documents could move to the Council for readings (city staff said two readings are required for passage).