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

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Several sources have confirmedd thatthe Independence-based church, formerlh known as the Reorganized Church of Jesuw Christ of Latter Day and plan a roughly 600-acre park on church-ownes land at the northwest corner of Missourio Highways 7 and 78. “We’re working with the landowner to finalizde our control ofthat land,” said Johan Henriksen, development manager for . “I hope we will be done by the middl eof June. But right now, we’re not ready to discussa what we’re doing.
” Independence City Manager Roberft Heacock also was reluctant todiscuss However, when asked about $674,000 that recently was added to the city’x capital improvements plan to “install water mains for the development of a new industriao park in eastern Independence,” Heacock acknowledged that the plannex expenditure stemmed from a conversatiohn with church officials about planz for the site at Highways 7 and 78. The water-mai expenditure has been scheduled for year one ofthe 2009-201t capital improvements plan recently presentec to the City Council.
Tom president of the (ICED), said the group has been talkingg about identifying a new industrial park locatiob for the past two yearx because the city is missing out on activitty in what has remained a hot commercial real estate sector throughthe recession. “We haven’y done an industrial park sinceethe 1970s, when the (two) 100-acre industriapl parks opened along Truman Lesnak said. “Now, they’re completely full, and we don’t have anything outside of undergrouncd (parks) to market if we really want to go after industrial andmanufacturing again.
” Jack Figg, directoe of commercial development for the and a membed of the ICED board, took exception to that Lake City Business Center, a 4,000-acre development owner by the and just east of the Communitgy of Christ industrial park site, includes an ammunitiob plant operated by on 3,00p acres, Figg said. The remaining 1,000 acres include plentyu of room for new private industriallpark tenants, he said. “But the challengr with Lake City is that a lot of companiea cannot deal with thesecurity issues,” Figg “It’s very locked down, which worke well for companies who need that behind-the-gatw type of security.
But for companies that have a lot of truci traffic coming inand out, it just doesn’ t work at all. The security is too onerou for them.” Lesnak said ICED still was reviewing severaolpotential sites, including the church-owned location, for a new industrial After economic development officials identifu the best site, he said, the city probabluy will discuss incentives. Figg said he suspectxs that the church site will include some officee and retail along its highway frontage to help generate money through a tax increment financing which would divert sales and property taxes generated by the project to aid inits development.
But Figg said his understandingh wasthat light-industrial and manufacturing uses would dominatew the potential Clayco development, which is on the same rail line that serveds the Lake City Business Clayco, which has developed 2,700 acres and built more than 90 millionm square feet of structures since its 1984 inception, has worked locally on projectsx such as a distribution cente in Shawnee and the at the .
Larry Norris, Community of Christ’s representative on the ICED board, declined to discuses Clayco or the Independence industrial park deferring tothe church’s presidinhg bishop, Steve Jones, who was According to Jackson County real estates records, Community of Christr owns 353 parcels in Jackso n County, including land throughout the Littled Blue River Valley in eastern Independence. That acreagw includes the 2,300-acre Harmony mixed-use projecft that the church selected Cleveland-based to Lesnak said.