By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
There are plenty of opportunities for both retail and industrial development in Hays, the area’s economic development director said on a community tour Monday.
Aaron White, executive director of the Ellis County Coalition for Economic Development, outlined some of these during Hays’ second-annual Community Cruise for public officials on Monday. The Cruise is hosted by the Hays Area Chamber of Commerce.
Big Creek Crossing is very close to on an agreement to develop the south end of its lot. Big Creek is pitching a separate development for the former G&L Tire building, which may be broken into several smaller shops, similar to the configuration of HaysMed and Starbucks on the north end of the lot.
White said there are no new developments on the former Ambassador Hotel site on north Vine Street. The owner is asking $3.3 million for that 5-acre site.
The former Carlos O’Kelly’s property next to Applebee’s is now for sale. Previously, the owner was only entertaining offers to lease the property. Two different national restaurant chains have expressed interest in the property, listed at $1.3 million.
White said that price may be high because most developers are looking at demolishing the building on the lot and constructing a new facility from the ground up.
On the other side of Vine, the new TownePlace Suites by Marriott opened Saturday.
Melissa Dixon, director of the Hays Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, said TownePlace Suites has added 81 rooms. Two more hotel projects are on the horizon. The Hilton Hotel, which will be west of Walmart on 43rd, and a La Quinta, which will be directly west of the former Golden Corral on 43rd. The Hilton project will include a conference center that will be able to hold up to 500 people.
“We decline a lot of conventions and groups, because we don’t have a place for them to meet or not enough rooms for their event,” she said.
A good example is Special Olympics, which just this month split its games between Hays and Topeka because Hays did not have enough rooms to accommodate all the visitors.
White said the ECC has identified a 6,000 people loss in visitors because of a lack of convention space.
“We are already getting calls from across the state and the region asking when is it going to be ready and can we book it now so we can start doing our conferences,” White said. “There is a lot of excitement about being able to come back into this area to do conventions.”
The La Quinta developers recently approached White about adding some type of attraction with the hotel at that site.
Tebo Village is still trying to land an anchor for its 16,000 square foot space at 43rd and Vine streets. The developer is also considering another major sit-down restaurant for the corner lot where the shopping center sign now sits. Stephen Tebo hopes to find something that will not compete with Pasta Jay’s, White said.
“The consistent message we get from developers and retailers is that Hays is a market that they want to be in, but it is not a good enough market that they will overpay for land,” White said. “So finding the right space and getting it priced at a reasonable level for what these guys are coming in for is always going to be the biggest challenge.”
Rail may be on the horizon for the Heart of America Industrial Park, which is a 85-acre development in about the 900 block of Commerce Parkway. ECC has looked at designs for a $2 million rail expansion. It would potentially turn the area into a transloading site. This would mean other manufactures could use the site to load and transport products by rail, which is often cheaper than by road. ECC is looking at tapping into KDOT funds for the project.
ECC is working with a manufacturer that wants to use about 30 acres at the south end of the industrial park. The manufacturer slits steel coils into narrower pieces that are then rolled and built into pipe. It could initially add a handful of employees. If the manufacturer expands to contract work, it could add 30 or 40 employees, White said.
“On the industrial side, one thing that we are trying to focus on is to be able to diversify our manufacturing base. We are heavily reliant on oil and gas. As we have seen with the oil and gas downturns, it impacts throughout the community. Retail feels it everybody feels it,” he said.
Diversification reduces risk and evens out some of the highs and lows, White said.