Oak Ridge Today

Mall redevelopment could cost $80 million, create close to 1,000 jobs

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Oak Ridge Mall Master Plan

The site plan for the redevelopment of the Oak Ridge Mall shows a multi-use, town center development with retail, office, hotel, and residential properties. (Submitted image)

The project could include retail, hotel, office, and residential properties, and generate more than $2 million per year in new city and county sales tax revenues, consultant says

Note: This story was last updated at 2 p.m.

The North Carolina company that wants to redevelop the Oak Ridge Mall has unveiled its site plan for the 60-acre property.

The $80 million redevelopment could include new retail, hotel, office, and residential properties. It would create almost 1,000 new jobs and increase annual city and county sales tax revenues by more than $2 million, according to an estimate by a city consultant.

The two remaining anchor stores at the 500,000-square-foot mall, JCPenney and Belk, would stay. So would Walmart and the Cinemark Tinseltown theater.

Meanwhile, the existing interior space between the anchor stores would be demolished. Previous mall redevelopment plans had also called for demolishing that interior retail space. [Read more…]

Tax financing meeting for Oak Ridge Mall postponed

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Oak Ridge Mall

A meeting to consider a tax financing agreement for the redevelopment of the Oak Ridge Mall has been postponed. The L-shaped mall is pictured at center above.

The meeting to consider a tax incentive that could be used to help redevelop the Oak Ridge Mall has been postponed in order to allow a city board to update its policy to reflect current state law, a city consultant said Friday.

The meeting, which had been scheduled for Sept. 26, could be rescheduled two to three weeks later, economic development consultant Ray Evans said.

He said the Oak Ridge Industrial Development Board has a tax increment financing, or TIF, policy that was initially enacted in 2008 and last updated in 2011. [Read more…]

City board will consider tax incentive, development area for Oak Ridge Mall

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Oak Ridge Mall Redevelopment Area

The Oak Ridge Mall economic development area is pictured above. The map shows a contiguous area that could be affected economically by the proposed development, which only includes the former 60-acre mall property, according to a city consultant. (Image courtesy City of Oak Ridge)

A city board this month will consider a financing arrangement that could be worth up to $10 million and allow a North Carolina company to use new property tax revenues generated at a redeveloped Oak Ridge Mall to be used for site development, possibly including for roads, stoplights, and demolition work.

Many of the details aren’t available yet, including the precise amount of the proposed tax increment financing, or TIF, agreement and the length of time it could be in effect. The details will be discussed at a Sept. 26 meeting of the Oak Ridge Industrial Development Board, when members will consider an economic impact plan, city consultant Ray Evans said.

The economic development area could include about 90 acres. It would include the 60-acre mall and could include an apartment complex and museum, movie theater and pizza shop, real estate firm and hotel, and several busy stores on Oak Ridge Turnpike—properties that could benefit from the TIF, Evans said.

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Guest column: Chamber believes Oak Ridge retail scene about to improve

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Working the retail scene

As you read this, a team of representatives from Oak Ridge is returning home from Las Vegas, Nev., where we attended the International Council of Shopping Centers annual ReCon convention. The convention is the largest gathering of representatives of national retailers and restaurants in the world.

Our team walked an average of about nine miles per day making sure we visited as many representatives as possible during our time here. We also exhibited in a pavilion that is set up specifically for cities around the nation. Several Tennessee communities were represented there. While there, we had 20 face-to-face meetings with representatives of national retailers and restaurants as well as representatives of Kroger Real Estate and Crosland Southeast, the company contracted to purchase the Oak Ridge City Center. [Read more…]

North Carolina company signs purchase contract on Oak Ridge Mall

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Oak Ridge Mall

An aerial view of the Oak Ridge Mall, which has been renamed the Oak Ridge City Center and is pictured at center in the photo above.

A North Carolina company has signed a contract to purchase the Oak Ridge Mall.

Crosland Southeast, a development and investment company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., signed a contract in late January to buy the mostly empty mall from Oak Ridge City Center LLC, according to a Wednesday morning press release from the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce.

“We feel the Oak Ridge market is under-served in terms of retail and feel very positive about the retailers we believe we can bring to this new center,” Crosland Southeast partner Tim Sittema said in a Wednesday morning press release from the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce.

A sale price for the roughly 60-acre site in the heart of Oak Ridge has not yet been disclosed, but it would become public after the deal closes.

“In my book, this is one of the most exciting days I’ve had here in a decade at the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce,” said Parker Hardy, president of the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce. “This is a big deal.”

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