[Vision2020] Hawkins Companies not going anywhere

[Tom Hansen]

Hmmm.

Yep.  That's what the Moscow-Pullman area needs . . . a mega-mall.

Now, all the Hawkins Companies needs is a water source.  Any suggestions, Wally?

http://youtu.be/6DtRFBxmyS0

Courtesy of today's (January 28, 2014) Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

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Hawkins not going anywhere
Boise-based developer talks of plans, strategies with Whitman County Commissioners
A spokesman for Hawkins Companies reassured Whitman County Commissioners on Monday the company isn't giving up on the project along the Pullman-Moscow Corridor.
"One thing remains constant, Hawkins Companies is here, and here to stay," said Jeff Devoe, project manager for the Boise-based developer. "We're completely committed because we've got such a high level of investment in the project."
The work to develop a 714,000-square- foot shopping center just west of the Idaho border has been on hold now for more than five years - first stalled by waning interest from potential tenants during the recession, then by troubles related to an amendment to the contract between the county and the developer.
Devoe admitted there hasn't been much interest from retailers during the past several years, but he said the phones are starting to ring. While he said there's currently no immediate plans to begin development and that it would be inappropriate to discuss which retailers they have been in discussion with until they have a signed contract, he did say Hawkins has been "up to their eyebrows" in negotiations for the past three to four months with a company that would be an anchor for the shopping center, as well as with several other smaller potential tenants.
"Here is my prediction for you - while we're sitting here sort of docile and saying it's not ready to go yet, and it may not be ready to go by June and it may not be ready to go by August, all of a sudden, somebody's going to come around in August and say, 'We'd love to come, but we'd sure like to be open by 2015,' " he said. "That's really the nature of the beast we're dealing with."
The meeting comes just days before the sunset of an amendment to the 2008 contract between the company and Whitman County that extended the amount the county would reimburse the developer for investment in any public infrastructure improvements they would make from $9.1 million to $15 million - the lack of any infrastructure extending to the State Route 270 corridor has long been blamed for the dearth of development on the Washington side.
As that amendment disappears, so should a lawsuit, brought forth by constituents within the county to contest the new agreement, that alleged the county violated the state's Open Public Meetings Act by not providing the public the opportunity to provide input during negotiations on the amendment.
When questioned about the ability of Hawkins to find funding for the infrastructure needed to make the shopping center happen once there's $6 million less available, Devoe stated that he couldn't speak about such issues while the lawsuit is still active.
He did however, discuss the possibility of using tax-increment financing, a method of using future increased taxes that result from a project to subsidize current development, as a way for the county to cover its costs when and if the development occurs.
Declared unconstitutional in Washington in a 1995 Spokane court case, there are some statutes that allow it under certain circumstances, Devoe said. The only one which would work in this case, he said, would involve using the nonstate school portion of the real property tax, and provided only 75 percent of the newly assessed value is used and consent is given from both Pullman schools and Fire District 12.
"In 2009, the Legislature said you can actually use a tax increment financing strategy through using the nonstate school portion of the real property tax," Devoe said. "I've never seen it done, I haven't seen it implemented, I've just read the statute and it says you can."
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Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"There's room at the top they are telling you still.
But first you must learn to smile as you kill,
If you want to be like the folks on the hill."

- John Lennon
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