Centerstate hotel fighting Menards development

The owner of the Hilton Garden Inn at Centerstate Crossing is fighting mad about a plan to build a Menards home improvement store next door, and he plans to pursue litigation if necessary.

The Planning & Zoning Commission approved the Menards development plan during its Jan. 10 meeting, and the City Council is expected to consider the proposal on Feb. 4.

“The problem is that [Menards] had submitted a site plan to all the surrounding owners, but that site plan is different from what they presented at the P&Z meeting,” hotel owner Ray Puri said. “Originally, there was 25 to 30 feet of green space, but now it is nonexistent due to their 14-foot fence at the property line.”

Puri said Centerstate’s original owner, Curtis McDonald, assured him Centerstate would be an upscale, first-class development similar to Boone Crossing in Chesterfield outside of St. Louis. But the development at U.S. 63 and Vandiver Drive did not grow as promised, and McDonald had to bail out. Bank Midwest took over and is selling the land.

“Boone Crossing is organized,” Puri said. “Here there is no master plan. It’s a bunch of hodgepodge that is happening here. The architectural covenants are not being followed.”

Scott Nuttleman, a real estate associate with Menards who spoke at the P&Z meeting, said he was happy with the commissioners’ unanimous decision to approve the Menards development plan. He said the new Menards store brings obvious benefits to the community and to the development.

“The criticisms were unfair and, in several respects, inaccurate,” he said. “Hotels and retailers are compatible users, and we’re fulfilling the design, intention and vision of the development by becoming another quality retail component of Centerstate.”

Unfortunately, to comply with the city’s new stormwater ordinance, the development layout had to be redrawn when engineers realized that the prevailing grades on the property made water flow away from the position of the retaining pond in the original drawing, Nuttleman said. “We plan to make any adjustments we can to alleviate the Puris’ alleged concerns, but unfortunately, the site is just too tight for us to make any substantial adjustments,” he said.

Puri, a local physician with Magnolia Critical Care, said all he wants is a better site plan, perhaps one that would include more green space between the two properties or a green roof over Menards’s outside storage.

Puri has said he plans to go to court if the City Council approves the development plan. “There are development agreements that were put in place by Curtis McDonald for this plat and that have been signed, ratified and recorded at the time of our transaction,” Puri said. “These agreements specifically call for no warehouse or storage, retail or otherwise, that can be built in Centerstate. The bank and Menards are disregarding these agreements because they feel it does not apply to them. This disregard will be the basis for our litigation.”