In a report made public late in the day on Friday,June 21st by Hastings Community Development Director John Hinzman and distributed to members of the City Council, HEDRA and Mayor Fasbender, a major development in the plans intended for contracted re-development of the former Hudson Manufacturing Building. According to the statement, the Purchase and Development Agreement for Great River Landing executed in 2016 with property transferred to Confluence Development in March of 2018,have experienced significant delays in Construction financing, environmental remediation, and finalized building plans meaning thousands in TIF proceeds are not coming to the city and a future bond payment of $228,600 plus anticipated TIF revenue equaling more than $292,000 could be charged back to the city if grants that were awarded to the project expire due to the inablilty of critical timelines to be met.
Hastings businessman Pat Regan is one of two partners in Confluence Development and a local contracting firm, owned by Greg Stotko is the construction company the developers are working with on the project. The city awarded the exclusive predevelopment agreement to Confluence Development in October, 2013. The city had purchased the property as an investment in redevelopment for just over 3 million dollars years earlier.
On May 9th, the City Council and HEDRA held a joint meeting with Confluence representatives to determine the progress of the project which has failed to meet key deadlines during most of the concept. Hinzman states that such delays have fundamentally changed the project by creating risk to the City that did not practically exist at the time of property transfer in 2018. There is a total of 1.5 million dollars in grant funding on the table that requires substantial completion of several critical path items that are, according to the latest information, unlikely to occur before the end of calendar 2019.
A long list of meetings are anticipated to happen within the next few weeks, but the near completion of the adjacent parking ramp, which was part of the total proposal remains the sole item on the list which met anticipated goals. Proposals have been made to find and secure a landscape designer and installer immediately that may be able to complete work prior to the end of 2019. Nearly a million dollars in grant monies are attached to that part of the project being fulfilled by the end of this year. The full building plans were finally submitted on June 17th with reviews underway by the city and an amendment to the Purchase and Development agreement is also being drafted for possible review by the Council, but not before July 15th at the earliest. One of the largest items, the Vapor Intrusion Mitigation System that vents soil vapor from the site has a half million dollars in grant funding attached, with the city obligated to pay another 292,000 for the remainder of that process, which it agreed to on January 2nd, 2018. It is possible that that process will begin in September. Overall, each deadline linked to grant funding could jeopardize the city’s position. KDWA has sought comments from Hinzman and also from Confluence which will be reported as soon as received. We will also ask for reactions from City Council members who have been updated on this turn of events. Stay tuned to KDWA for more on this developing story.
