City targets third shovel-ready site

At their winter retreat, City Council members expressed support for City Manager Bill Watkins’ plan to buy a 214-acre tract along the Route B industrial corridor to develop as Columbia’s third “shovel-ready” industrial site.

The property is on the northeastern corner of Route B and Waco Road between Kraft Foods and the city landfill. Watkins estimated the purchase price would be about $4 million, but he said Dec. 13 that he’ll negotiate with the landowner and come back to Council with a contract proposal for the members to consider.

Watkins said the landowner is receptive to selling a 114-acre tract — the eastern portion that would buffer the landfill — for $1 million and giving the city the option of buying the western portion for an additional $3 million at any point during the following five years.

The city would seek to get the land designated as a state-certified site and make it available for industrial users. The certification is a draw for recruiting industries because the necessary infrastructure and zoning would be in place. In addition, the Certified Industrial Site Program provides, under certain conditions, tax breaks and other financial incentives for property developers who are creating industrial jobs.

There is already a state-certified, privately owned “shovel-ready” site along Route B, the Ewing Business Park, that is targeting data center developers and a second industry-ready site along Route Z on the north side of Interstate 70, the Mid-Point Business Park, owned by the Columbia Area Jobs Foundation.

Fifth Ward Council Representative Laura Nauser said the Council’s support would demonstrate the members are friendly to economic development, and the timing would be good because land prices are relatively low.

Several Council members said they particularly liked one aspect of the plan: About half of the land, heavily wooded and sloped, would be used as a buffer between the industrial corridor, Hinkson Creek and the city landfill.

“We could have economic development and environmental protection at the same time,” Sixth Ward Representative Barbara Hoppe said.

The property, referred to as the Sutter site, is owned by a California-based trust set up by members of the Henrikson family who inherited the land from two sisters named Sutter.

The city wrote a letter to Geoffrey Henrikson, which was dated Dec. 1 and signed by the trustee, which expressed its intent to acquire the property and the proposed terms.

Watkins said he was interested in buying the property for industrial use back in the early 1990s when he was the city’s director of economic development, but the owners were not interesting in selling.