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Developers pitch Walmart supercenter for West Provo, seek up to $4.5M in RDA/tax-increment incentives
Summary
Developers of a proposed Walmart supercenter for a low-lying West Provo site told the RDA and council the store will require heavy site fill, canal and utility relocations and major interchange and road improvements; they reduced an initial incentive request and proposed a capped package of sales/transient-room/property-tax increment support capped around $3M, arguing break-even in five to eight years and long-term net benefit.
Developers and RDA staff presented a term sheet for a Walmart supercenter proposed on a low-lying parcel at the Lake View Parkway/I‑15 corridor and sought council/RDA feedback on a tax-increment and sales/room-tax sharing package to help offset extraordinary site and road-development costs.
Key constraints: the site requires extensive structural fill (staff estimated approximately 350,000 cubic yards for Walmart’s parcel and the access/utility corridors), relocation/undergrounding of a canal along the east property line, off-site utility rerouting, and large interchange and arterial upgrades (I‑15 ramp improvements, Lake View Parkway widening and restriping, and a full five-lane section on Fifth West). These public improvements, the developer said, are prerequisites to realizing the site’s commercial value after the city rezoned the corridor for freeway‑commercial uses.
Incentive request and term sheet: developers originally sought up to $8.9M of support; the current term sheet discussed at the meeting reduced that to a $4.5M package composed primarily of sales-tax sharing (proposed 25% of sales-tax increment for 10 years), a share of transient-room tax (25% for 10 years), and a share of property-tax increment (100% of site increment for a proposed period). RDA staff requested a hard cap on total incentives; a $3M cap for combined incentives was discussed as a negotiation point. Developers provided a financial model indicating break-even on the city’s land-value-equivalent investment after roughly five to eight years under conservative assumptions, and argued that if the project exceeds assumptions the city’s net benefit would grow.
Council and staff discussion focused on the scale of public improvements required, timing (the term sheet lists a 30-month break-ground requirement to avoid reversion of land), cannibalization of nearby retail, how to set the base-year assessed value for property-tax increment calculations, and protections if retail pads remain vacant. Developers said some retail pads may be leased over time as the area develops; they emphasized incentives and the term sheet structure are intended to accelerate site improvements and nearer-term construction. Parks and airport staff argued the hotel and retail components would serve Epic Sports Park, airport users and local residents.
The work session did not finalize the incentive but staff and developers agreed to draft a formal agreement that would return to council and the RDA for formal consideration.
