By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
The Big Creek Travel Plaza proposed to be built in Hays has been withdrawn by investors.
“They determined that without the TIF (tax increment financing), they were unable to move forward. The package just didn’t move forward,” Aaron White, Ellis County Coalition for Economic Development Executive Director, said Thursday morning.
White said he notified Hays City Manager Toby Dougherty and city staff Wednesday morning of the decision by Colby-based NWK Investments, LLC.
“Obviously, a lot of work was put into this and we would have liked to have seen it be successful. There may be an opportunity to try and rework the project and move something forward at a later date, but at this point in time, I don’t see that happening,” White added.
Hays city commissioners last week rejected two of the three economic development options available through the city’s economic development policy. They rejected both the TIF application and the IRB (industrial revenue bond) application during a presentation at the Sept. 3 city commission work session. Commissioner James Meier was absent.
James Millensifer, vice president of operations for Chance Management, which would have managed the project, and Hays attorney Don Hoffman, presented a revised plan for Phase 1 of the $28 million project.
After two hours of discussion, during which each commissioner said he supported the full-service truck stop and travel plaza, ultimately they told Millensifer they were interested only in utilizing the third economic development option — a CID (community improvement district) — and directed city staff to begin negotiations with NWK Investments.
TIF sets the property value on the land at its pre-development rate, with the additional tax revenue created by the value of buildings and businesses (the “increment”) used to pay for infrastructure and other capital costs. A CID allows the city to create a district that would add sales tax on goods and services sold within the district to pay for infrastructure and improvements. The CID most recently was used in the ongoing rehabilitation project at the Mall at Hays.
“After last week’s meeting, they (NWK) went back to their investors, ran the numbers, and determined they are not going to move forward with the travel plaza just trying to utilize the CID alone,” White said.
The developer had identified $10.5 million in TIF-eligible costs, but only about $4 million were for public infrastructure — water, sewer, and street infrastructure. The rest of the TIF eligible costs were for land acquisition, site development and private streets/paving. The IRB could have been used to avoid paying sales taxes on any construction materials. The CID request would have imposed an additional 2 percent tax on retail items sold within the CID.
A TIF district was approved by the city for construction of The Home Depot, 1310 E. 41st. CIDs are currently in place at the Hays Mall, 2918 Vine, and the Holiday Inn Express & Suites, 4650 Roth.
The travel plaza would have been built on 23.3 acres of land at the northwest corner of 230th Ave. and 55th Street, just north of the west Interstate 70 exit.