Developer outlines $100 million shopping-center plan, offers linear park and seeks TIF analysis

Developer Kevin Hawkins told the Hurricane City Council at a work meeting that Hawkins Development has a shopping-center project under contract at the Walmart intersection between Sand Hollow Road and 3400 West and is seeking the council’s early feedback on public amenities, site layout and financing options.

“I’ve been a shopping center developer for 45 years,” Hawkins said. He described a roughly 40-acre project with anchor interest in home-improvement, entertainment and grocery tenants and “probably gonna be a $100,000,000 project” when complete. The plan shown to council includes a pedestrian corridor, a roundabout water feature that flows into a splash pad, food-truck and shade areas along State Route 9 frontage, a tree nursery/seasonal market area, splash pads, fire pits and pickleball courts.

Hawkins said eight acres along State Route 9 are within a UDOT corridor-preservation area that UDOT plans to buy now and hold for about 10 years. “They said, we’ll lease it back to you for almost nothing. You can do with it what you want,” Hawkins said, and described a temporary activation plan (food trucks, seasonal markets) that would present the site to the highway’s 44,000 cars-per-day traffic.

Hawkins proposed dedicating the pedestrian corridor and some onsite recreation (including pickleball courts) to the city as a linear park, then financing construction via a property-tax increment financing (TIF) mechanism. He asked the council to authorize staff to pursue an analysis with DA Davidson, a municipal-bond advisor, to model whether a TIF or similar bond structure could fund the park and related site improvements. “What I would like to propose… is I would like to dedicate that pedestrian corridor…and I’ve done that before,” Hawkins said. He estimated the park/building improvements to cost several million dollars and said Hawkins Development would put equity into the overall project and personally guarantee loans with partners and lenders.

Council members asked several operational questions about access points, frontage-road connections and whether the public dedication would include an easement. Hawkins said the development team would build the park amenities and dedicate the easement and improvements to the city after bond proceeds were spent. Council and staff raised water-use rules for ornamental features; Hawkins replied the design would recirculate and use minimal makeup water.

Why it matters: the proposal would convert agricultural property currently in an ag assessment into large-scale retail and entertainment development and add a publicly accessible linear park and community amenities paid initially by the developer and reimbursed through a shared tax mechanism if a TIF is approved. The council did not take any formal action during the presentation; Hawkins asked the city to let the developer take a DA Davidson analysis to the next step and return with the project math for council review.

Provenance: The council discussion began with Hawkins’s introduction and presentation (topic intro) and closed after Q&A about TIF mechanics and park dedication (topic finish).