Council holds full public hearings on Nolan Fashion Square redevelopment; developers seek roughly $97–100M project with nearly half public support

Trieland Properties representatives, city staff and financial advisers presented three full public hearings on May 18 about the proposed Nolan Fashion Square redevelopment and the tax-increment financing (TIF) plan to support it.

David Martin, bond and economic development counsel from Gilmore & Bell, told the council the proposal includes 11 redevelopment project areas and multiple overlapping incentives — a TIF capture, a 1% Community Improvement District (CID) sales tax with a $1-per-square-foot special assessment after buildout, and a Chapter 100 sales-tax exemption on construction materials. Martin said the total development cost is ‘‘just over a $100,000,000’’ in some materials and about $97,500,000 in others depending on whether the sales-tax exemption is included. He described a 23-year capture period and said the package is structured so that annual-appropriation backing would not be required of the city.

Developer representatives said reuse of existing structures would save substantial costs compared with full demolition and rebuilds. The Trieland representative (identified in the record as president of Trieland Properties) said the project would anchor Redevelopment Project 1 with a relocated Price Chopper and noted an ‘‘aggressive’’ timeline contingent on council approvals: sell bonds in early 2027, start construction in early 2027, and open the grocery anchor before the 2027 holidays.

John Hansen, managing director at IRR corporate and public finance (consultant to the developer), presented the financial model and said the project’s estimated return without incentives is a negative 3.8% but would rise to about 8.79% using the requested tools. The plan groups the requested public support into roughly $16 million in TIF, an estimated $9.3 million in sales-tax-related reimbursements during the TIF period, and other CID/TDD and special-assessment components. Hansen said approximately $49.8 million of reimbursements/abatements are forecast in the plan — roughly 49% of the stated project cost — while about 52% would be private investment and 22% CID/TDD funding.

City staff and public-safety officials described the site’s condition and enforcement history. Tom Scannell, the city’s director of community and economic development, said two buildings had been tagged as dangerous and that the city paused some enforcement while incentive negotiations proceeded; a prior emergency demolition was halted by litigation. A public-safety official reported response data for Nolan Fashion Square and its immediate vicinity dating to 2025, documenting structure fires and frequent incident responses and describing the concentrated safety risk posed by derelict properties.

Councillors pressed developers and staff on key points: the developer has not yet purchased the property and acquisition is contingent on approvals; the proposal requests to waive a statutory transfer finding that would otherwise treat a relocating grocer’s sales base as preexisting for capture calculations; the requested redirected-tax share exceeds the city’s stated 20% policy (staff said the project seeks about 48–49% redirected taxes); and developers and bond counsel said bonds would likely be issued by the Industrial Development Authority rather than the city, which they said would limit direct city payment risk because the financing would not be structured with an annual appropriation backstop.

A resident who identified himself as living in the proposed district spoke in favor; no public speakers opposed the measures in the hearings. After presentations and public input, the council recorded a long series of first readings of the ordinances required to establish the redevelopment plan, designate project areas and initiate TIF, CID and Chapter 100 actions. Final council action on those ordinances was not taken at the May 18 meeting; staff and the developer outlined next steps for a June 1 meeting to advance second readings and related approvals.

Why this matters: The plan would redevelop a large, blighted shopping center, preserve a supermarket anchor inside the city limits, and use a multi-decade mix of tax-capture and special-district assessments to finance infrastructure and redevelopment. Council members noted trade-offs including the scale of public incentives, potential effects on city fiscal policy, and the need to balance redevelopment benefits against enforcement alternatives if the package is not approved.

What’s next: Council recorded first readings of ordinances 26-040 through 26-051 (project area approvals) and related ordinances to advance the TIF, CID and Chapter 100 components; staff said final actions and a potential second reading could occur at the June 1 meeting.

Quotes: "This project...is a tax increment financing project, which means that 50% of the property tax increment will be captured and applied to the project," David Martin said. John Hansen said the estimated return using the requested tools is about "8.79%." The Trieland representative said, "We expect to sell the bonds in early 2027" if approvals proceed.

Ending: The council left the hearings open for formal action at future meetings and recorded the required first readings on the redevelopment package; if the council advances the ordinances at second reading the city would move to implement the TIF/CID/Chapter 100 components described in the presentations.