A few emails are circulating today encouraging neighbors to pressure city officials to include a size limit on the Lake Highlands Town Center grocery anchor. The emails refer to tomorrow’s city council agenda item requesting a tax increment financing (TIF) reimbursement increase for the Town Center. We received a couple of the emails, including one from JAH Realty, which owns Royal Highlands Plaza at Royal and Skillman where a Tom Thumb is located, and created and funded the group “Concerned Lake Highlands Citizens” in an effort to protect its property.
We placed a call to Sue Hounsel in the office of economic development, asking whether this the city could legally restrict or put parameters on the size of grocery store within a project that has been approved for TIF funding, and whether it was planning to do so.
Hounsel told us that the city is “reluctant to do anything overly heavy-handed. We might restrict it to the point where nothing can happen, at least in today’s market.” Stephanie Colovas of Town Center developer Prescott Realty stated at a recent meeting that Prescott has “been tenacious about finding the right organic grocer and we’re still trying to find that organic grocer,” but “we can’t build something if we can’t get financing for it,” and finding banks to finance an boutique grocer has been difficult for the company.
Hounsel also says there have been Dallas economic development agreements “where we’ve maybe prohibited tattoo parlors or sexually-oriented businesses — things that are at the extreme. But otherwise, we tend to be careful.”
“I know this grocer thing is a big topic, but tomorrow’s decision is not going to dictate a grocery store size one way or another,” Hounsel says. “I think that will continue to be a topic of discussion as we go on,” and could be addressed as part of the ongoing design review of the Town Center property.
In an email, Graham Irvine of JAH Realty is asking the city to “limit any retail box that can be built on the Town Center site to 25,000 square feet” to allow for a boutique grocer and rule out a traditional grocery store, such as Tom Thumb. Irvine also points out that “we think it is important that the ultimate decision of how this development proceeds be left in the hands of our elected representative as opposed to the developer and city staff” because “our elected representative is charged with answering to the people.”
Update: Councilman Jerry Allen responded to JAH Realty’s request for a size limit in a voicemail, saying: “That’s not something I’m going to consider doing tomorrow. The TIF Board hasn’t talked about it or broached that issue, nor has the economic development [staff], and I do not intend to limit it at this moment in time.”