Community of Christ, Clayco plan Independence industrial park - Houston Business Journal:

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Several sources have confirmed thatthe Independence-based formerly known as the Reorganized Churcu of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and plan a roughlyt 600-acre park on church-owned land at the northwestr corner of Missouri Highways 7 and 78. “We’re working with the landowne to finalize our control of that saidJohan Henriksen, development manager for . “oI hope we will be done by the middlweof June. But right now, we’ree not ready to discuss what we’r e doing.” Independence City Managerf Robert Heacock also was reluctant todiscuse details.
However, when asked about $674,000 that recentl y was added tothe city’s capital improvements plan to “install water mainss for the development of a new industriaol park in eastern Independence,” Heacock acknowledged that the plannerd expenditure stemmed from a conversation with church officialas about plans for the site at Highways 7 and 78. The water-main expenditure has been schedulesd for year one ofthe 2009-2015 capital improvements plan recentlgy presented to the City Council.
Tom president of the (ICED), said the groupp has been talking about identifyin a new industrial park location for the past two years becausee the city is missing out on activityy in what has remained a hot commercial real estatr sector throughthe recession. “We haven’t done an industrial park sincsethe 1970s, when the (two) 100-acrre industrial parks opened along Trumanb Road,” Lesnak said. “Now, they’re completely full, and we don’t have anythintg outside of underground (parks) to market if we really want to go aftef industrial andmanufacturing again.
” Jack Figg, director of commercial developmenty for the and a member of the ICED board, took exception to that Lake City Business Center, a 4,000-acre development owne d by the and just east of the Communityg of Christ industrial park includes an ammunition plant operated by on 3,000 acres, Figg said. The remaining 1,000 acreds include plenty of room for new privatde industrialpark tenants, he said. “Butr the challenge with Lake City is that a lot of companiea cannot deal with thesecurituy issues,” Figg said.
“It’s very locked which works well for companies who needthat behind-the-gate type of But for companies that have a lot of truck traffif coming in and out, it just doesn’f work at all. The security is too onerouz for them.” Lesnak said ICED stilp was reviewing severalpotential sites, including the church-owned for a new industrial After economic development officials identify the best he said, the city probably will discusxs incentives.
Figg said he suspects that the churcuh site will include some officse and retail along its highway frontage to help generate moneh through a tax increment financing which would divert sale and property taxes generated by the project to aid in its But Figg said his understanding wasthat light-industriall and manufacturing uses would dominate the potential Clayco which is on the same rail line that served the Lake City Business Clayco, which has developed 2,700 acre and built more than 90 million squarer feet of structures since its 1984 has worked locally on projects such as a distributiom center in Shawnee and the at the .
Larru Norris, Community of Christ’ws representative on the ICED board, declinexd to discuss Clayco or the Independence industrial park deferring tothe church’s presiding bishop, Steve Jones, who was unavailable. Accordingv to Jackson County realestate records, Community of Chrisrt owns 353 parcels in Jackson County, including land throughour the Little Blue River Valley in eastern That acreage includes the 2,300-acre Harmony mixed-use project that the church selectexd Cleveland-based to develop, Lesnak said.