Walgreens to anchor Main and Malone site

SIKESTON - A redevelopment project with Walgreens as the anchor at the old Missouri Department of Transportation office site near the intersection of Main and Malone could "set the tone" for further improvements in the area.

An ordinance designating Sikeston Acquisition, Inc. as the developer for the Main/Malone Redevelopment District and authorizing execution of preliminary funding agreement was approved as an emergency bill during the special City Council meeting today.

The bill was passed as an emergency measure to keep the project on the previously established timeline, according to City Manager Doug Friend.

Friend said Sikeston Acquisition, Inc., an entity of Koman Properties, Inc. of Clayton, was the only developer to respond to the city's request for proposals.

Gene Blandford of Peckham Guyton Albers and Viets, Inc., an urban consulting firm in St. Louis, said the redevelopment project would include a 15,000 square foot Walgreens and a strip mall.

A section of Linn Street would be vacated with a limited access permitting only right turns into or exiting the shopping center to be located north of the Linn-Main intersection. Developers would also seek to put in a traffic signal at the intersection of Lake and North Main.

The project would require a total of $1.6 million in redevelopment incentives with roughly $1.2 million in tax increment financing and another $400,000 in transportation development district funding, according to Blandford. He said development incentives should be paid off in 10-12 years.

"This is a pretty prominent site," Blandford said. He suggested the city could invest another $100,000 in landscaping and decorative lighting to "set a little tone along that section of North Main" and spur further improvements.

As developers typically shy away from naming businesses in the early stages of a project, Blandford said it "bodes well that they are naming Walgreens...it speaks well for their proposal."

Blandford closed with the recommendation that the city "go with them and begin to negotiate the redevelopment agreement."

Officials also discussed the possibility of acquiring sheds located at the corner between the railroad tracks and Linn Street.

"It would be nice if we could clean up that whole corner," said Councilman Phil Boyer.

"We think this will be a great catalyst for the area," said Scott Haley, director of development for Koman Properties, Inc.

Haley said revenue projections as presented by Blandford are conservative: "Hopefully we will far exceed the projections."

Key points to the project, Haley said, are the vacation of Linn Street and providing "safe access in and out of the site."

The presentation by Haley included images of how buildings and parking for the entire development would be laid out as well as a rendering of the "typical Walgreens" envisioned for the site.

Council members said it looks like the project would work best by closing Linn's connection with Main Street on the east end while leaving the west end open.

"I think the city's very excited about this project," said Mayor Mike Marshall, adding that combined with other redevelopment projects in the area, "it is all real encouraging."

Blandford agreed the project could "set the example and tone."

Also at the meeting representing Sikeston Acquisitions, Inc. was local partner Louis Burge of Sikeston.