Published: Friday, March 26, 2010 8:36 PM CDT
University Town Center lead
developer Bruce Holland and his team met with members of Illinois
Governor Pat Quinn’s administration Wednesday to discuss the
proposed Glen Carbon development and related sale tax revenue
bond legislation.
Two meetings took place, UTC spokesperson Rebecca Rausch said
— one with Quinn’s chief operating officer Jack Lavin
and staff members and the other with officials from the Illinois
Department of Revenue, at which administrative personnel were
present.
They were scheduled at the request of the Quinn administration,
she said.
Rausch gave few details about what was discussed other than to
say that she found the meetings encouraging and that the
administration remains interested in the project and supporting
incentives.
“I would describe it as positive and productive,”
Rausch said. “We’re moving forward.”
The study which they have commissioned from Richard Ward of
Zimmer Real Estate Services is due to be released shortly, she
said.
Thursday’s meetings came in the wake of a press conference
Monday organized by the Southwestern Illinois Council of Mayors
in Fairview Heights condemning the sales tax revenue – STAR
bonds – legislation designed as an incentive to development.
The essence of the legislation involves the diversion of sales
tax revenue from businesses in the planned 650-acre STAR bonds
district considered destination tenants.
At Monday’s press conference, House sponsor of the
legislation Illinois Rep. Tom Holbrook announced that he had
decided not to proceed with the bill for the Metro East for the
time being or until a majority of his constituents are in support
of it.
In a letter Holbrook sent to Holland and others dated March 21,
he cited the common goal elected officials share of creating jobs
and growing the economy, but he also urged continued discussion.
“In light of a recently completed economic impact study and
a second study nearing completion, I encouraged and continue to
encourage all involved parties to meet with members of UTC
Development to discuss how the destination development may impact
your specific community and any concerns you may have,”
Holbrook says.
Rausch said they have since requested to meet with area officials
but are not seeing much response.
What has them perplexed is the assertion that the development
would exacerbate rather than help eliminate the state’s
economic woes, Rausch said.
“Because the economy is the way it is right now is the
reason we have to do this now,” she said.
Rausch said they were just amazed that there could be a mindset
out there that any large scale destination development would be a
bad thing for the Metro East, yet that appears to be what the
PGAV study is saying.
Edwardsville Mayor Gary Niebur, Maryville Mayor Larry Gulledge,
Madison County Board Chairman Alan Dunstan and St. Clair County
Board Chairman Mark Kern have each said in the past that they are
not opposed to development but that the central issue was the use
of STAR Bonds as an incentive tool.
Doing so, they’ve said, would give it an unfair competitive
advantage over other commercial enterprises in the area and erode
existing tax bases to their detriment.
Illinois Senator Bill Haine painted a picture Monday of a large,
sprawling, upper-scale mall complex with entertainment as well as
retail tenants that would be very difficult for other commercial
areas in the region such as Fairview Heights to compete with.
He could not say if a STAR bonds measure might work on a smaller
scale or elsewhere, but in this case he was adamant that the
project would pose a real threat to the economic bases of
existing establishments.
Rausch said they remain committed to the project and urged people
to look at how successful the STAR Bonds development near Kansas
City has been. She also compared sizable development on the
Missouri side of the Mississippi River compared to Illinois.
“We’ve not only got to get in the game but we’ve
got to start winning these battles,” she said.
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