Seeks Business Park land, and DPW, police station

TIVERTON — A deal may be in the works between the Town of Tiverton and Legacy Venture West Development (Legacy Development) of Kansas City to construct an outlet shopping center on 130 acres of the Tiverton Business Park (formerly called the Tiverton Industrial Park).

If the deal goes through, Legacy and the Town of Tiverton have agreed to a purchase price for the acreage of $8.25 million.

The proposal, however, is in its early stages. A "stand still" agreement between the town and Legacy gives each side about 150 days to study the possibilities in more detail, without the risk of intervention by other potential purchasers.

The stand-still was agreed to by the council in executive session, on Nov. 25 and announced publicly that night. For the past several months, discussions about a possible deal with Legacy had been rumored, but shrouded behind executive session closed doors.

The development idea

''The concept we are looking at for this site in Tiverton is not an enclosed mall," said Legacy's Vice President of Development Bart Sides, in Town Hall public comments immediately after the announcement of last Monday's executive session vote.

It "requires no re-zoning," and "no change in the comprehensive plan," he said, in likely reference to actions that had been requested by Carpionato Development Group in advocating for its Tiverton Glen proposal that the council recently rejected.

Tiverton Glen would have been located on the opposite side of the Route 24/Fish Road intersection from the one now being considered by Legacy.

The acreage involved in the Legacy proposal lies in the northwest quadrant of the town's 172-acre business park, on the southeast corner of the intersection of Route 24 and Fish Road.

The 130-acre parcel is over twice the size of Tiverton Glen (63.4 acres).

"We do have a concept called 'The Legends,' which has been very successful in Kansas City," Mr. Sides said in his comments. "It's an open air shopping center with a lot of landscaping."

The type of retail outlet he's talking about, Mr. Sides said, "is typically not a big box concept. It's usually 15,000 square feet or smaller. We have some tenants that go up to 35,000 square feet. We don't want to rule out a big box if the right people come along, and if the community is open to that, and we certainly want to talk about it. But generally speaking this is not a big box concept."

The Legends Outlets shopping center in Kansas City has about 110 stores. See: www.legendsshopping.com. By comparison, Wrentham Village Premium Outlets in Massachusetts has about 170.

"The buyer is also interested in the lot that includes the Department of Public Works (DPW) barn and the police station," said Town Administrator Matt Wojcik at the council meeting, when the potential deal was announced.

Sale of the lot and buildings, by a competitive sealed bid auction process, was authorized by town voters at the Financial Town Referendum last May 16.

No mention was made then, nor has been made since, about where the town DPW and police facilities might be re-located if the deal happens.

"We think that the project we're going to try to put together here in Tiverton has a lot of positive financial impacts, not only for the immediate needs of the town, but in the longer range we think it can help diversify the tax base," said Mr. Sides.

The "stand-still" agreement

For a deposit of $2,500, Town Planner Marc Rousseau said last Tuesday, the developer gets a period of time to look the deal over, free of worry that another developer might step in and snatch the opportunity away. It's like a "time out," he said.

"This is a serious proposal," Mr. Rousseau said. "The big question for the developer is, will their footprint work."

Already, he said, representatives of Legacy Development have walked the site with an engineering company.

"The site has some challenges," Mr. Sides said. "There's going to be a lot of work involved trying to get everything to fit."

"We want to make sure that we're very careful to develop to a size and scope and get the right architecture and everything that is fitting inTiverton and the surrounding communities," he said.

A document released by the town with the announcement says that tTiverton "will not accept any other offers on certain parcels of land at the Tiverton Business Park while exploring" a possible deal with Legacy Development.

The "stand still" is dated Nov. 23, and allows for an exploratory period of 90 days, with a "potential extension of 60 days by mutual agreement of the parties." This could peg the expiration of the 150-day time frame to about the end of the third week in April.

During that time, Legacy Development will make a public presentation to the Tiverton Economic Development Committee (tentatively scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016).

Other workshops, and a final presentation to the Town Council, will also take place on dates to be determined.

The final council presentation, says the agreement, will include a conceptual site plan, a list of the types of businesses contemplated for the outlet, a likely "building configuration," an outline of the primary access and traffic management issues, and infrastructure planning concerns.

Any agreement would include a proposed timeline for the project, and an expected construction timetable ("milestones," said Mr. Wojcik, that the developer would agree to meet).

Other possible purchasers of Tiverton Business Park land include: 1) backers of an indoor sports facility (approximately 10.13 acres), 2) Blue Sphere Corporation (approximately 14.9 acres, for a bio-gas electricity plant), and 3) Emera Energy (a Halifax, Nova Scotia energy company, interested in the entire 172 acres of the Business Park, an interest, said by Mr. Rousseau, to be on the "back burner."