Okay, the picture pretty much says it. The City’s said it much more precisely, but the deal is that a Super Target and associated stores could be reasonably expected to generate about $60M in sales in Oak Ridge.
That’s a lot of money for our schools, but it’s about more than money. It’s about making our town more desirable, both for ourselves, and for others who may be moving into the area.
As AT said so well, we have to shop somewhere, and what we have locally clearly isn’t enough.
Here’s hoping that City Council says AYE to the first step in this process tonight.
I recognize that means there will likely be a petition drive for a referendum, and I don’t know whether GBT and Target would stick it out until June 5. They’ve already invested a lot of time and money, which it seems would go to waste for naught if they walked away.
Trouble is, their option on the land expires on April 15.
I’d rather have no referendum, but if we must, I hope at least to retain hope of this development going forward.
I have talked and researched and am of the opinion that the pros outweigh the cons. We have to do something, sitting around talking and doing nothing is so counter productive. I say go for it. If it doesn’t work at least we tried. We cannot continue operating as conservatively as we have been. We continue to scare businesses away and we still have payroll, budget and schools to take care of. We need to get the money somehow and this could possibly be a move to a solution.
OK- maybe I’ve been misunderstanding this or perhaps it’s being spoken of incorrectly: are they wanting to BORROW the $10.5M, or basically have OR GIVE them that amount?
I don’t care if we get it back from repayment of an interest free loan or from taxes, IF we can be assured it will be given back.
I can’t help but feel this is being held over our heads, like someone’s wearing a mask saying “Gimme your money or your future is dead.” Everything I read is suggesting that nothing is being guaranteed for the location, only that they want OR to guarantee them money. (Is it true they won’t even guarantee a SuperTarget, the very cornerstone of their pitch?)
How long will it take for OR to receive this estimated $5.4M in sales tax from the $60M its supposed to generate? 1 year, 5 years, 15 years?
Wildroo, my suggestion would be to listen more closely to the city officials actually involved in this project, and perhaps a little less to the DFET group… that seems to be where the “there’s no guarantee of a supertarget” argument is coming from, and it’s incorrect.
In the Council meeting last night, Jim O’Connor stated very plainly that there will be significant terms and conditions to the City’s financial participation, and one of those is that they have to see signed evidence of a purchase by Target, for a SuperTarget store, prior to the release of any city funds.
Additionally, they will have to provide the names and lease agreements for the other stores to be co-located, with long enough lease terms to ensure that they city’s investment is not wasted.