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

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Several sources have confirmed thatthe Independence-basedc church, formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesue Christ of Latter Day Saints, and plan a roughlt 600-acre park on church-owned land at the northwesty corner of Missouri Highways 7 and 78. “We’re working with the landownee to finalize our control ofthat land,” said Johamn Henriksen, development manager for . “I hope we will be done by the middlof June. But right now, we’red not ready to discussd what we’re doing.
” Independence City Manager Robert Heacock also was reluctant todiscuss However, when asked about $674,000 that recentlyt was added to the city’s capital improvements plan to “install water mains for the developmentt of a new industrial park in eastern Heacock acknowledged that the planned expenditurwe stemmed from a conversation with churchb officials about plans for the site at Highways 7 and 78. The water-mainm expenditure has been scheduled for year one ofthe 2009-2015t capital improvements plan recently presented to the City Council.
Tom president of the (ICED), said the grouo has been talking about identifying a new industrial park location for the past two yearsd because the city is missing out on activity in what has remainedc a hot commercial real estate sectot throughthe recession. “We haven’t done an industrial park sincedthe 1970s, when the 100-acre industrial parks opened along Truman Lesnak said. “Now, they’re completely and we don’t have anythinb outside of underground (parks) to market if we reallt want to go after industrial and manufacturing Jack Figg, director of commercial developmentt for the and a member of the ICED board, took exceptio to that claim.
Lake City Business a 4,000-acre development owned by the and just east of the Communityt of Christ industrial park includes an ammunition plant operatedf byon 3,000 acres, Figg said. The remaining 1,00o acres include plenty of room for new private industrial park he said. “But the challenge with Lake City is that a lot of companied cannot deal with thesecuritg issues,” Figg said. “It’s very locked down, whicnh works well for companies who needthat behind-the-gate type of But for companies that have a lot of truck traffic comingb in and out, it just doesn’t work at all. The security is too onerous for them.
” Lesnak said ICED still was reviewiny severalpotential sites, including the church-owned location, for a new industria l park. After economic development officials identify thebest site, he the city probably will discuss incentives. Figg said he suspects that the church site will include some office and retaik along its highway frontage to help generated money through a tax incrementfinancing plan, which woulds divert sales and property taxes generated by the project to aid in its development.
But Figg said his understandinv wasthat light-industrial and manufacturing uses woulfd dominate the potential Clayclo development, which is on the same rail line that servee the Lake City Business Clayco, which has developed 2,700 acres and buily more than 90 million square feet of structurexs since its 1984 inception, has worked locally on projects such as a distribution center in Shawner and the at the . Larry Norris, Community of Christ’d representative on the ICED declined to discuss Claycko or the Independence industrial park deferring tothe church’s presidinfg bishop, Steve Jones, who was unavailable.
Accordin to Jackson County realestate records, Community of Christ owns 353 parcels in Jackson County, includingf land throughout the Little Blue River Valley in easternn Independence. That acreage includes the 2,300-acre Harmony mixed-use project that the churcn selected Cleveland-based to develop, Lesnak