Ask any Solway resident (I did live there) about the traffic leaving Oak Ridge and hurrying into west Knox County. These drivers are in a rush, they are not in the mood to stop and shop.

Consider, also, that CrestGONE is out of the way for those working at ORNL (X-10) and even for Y-12. I do agree that some DoE employees would drive past it, though.

Now just think of what those hurried drivers will say if a new traffic light pops up to stop there mad rush home. And then think of the extra fuel burned to restart a vehicle going up hill.

“I think our real gain, however, would simply be in keeping local dollars local. ”

So the billboards in City of Oak Ridge was not good enough? I see your point, but a Target is not good enough for me.

Why are teachers bashed by your website for OPINIONS different from yours? That is a poor decision Netmom. Some habits you just do not break, do you?

Maybe if you had a pair hanging from your hinterlands Netmom, you would see the shopping power of FedEx, UPS, and Yellow Freight.

Variety is in the product, not the store. We shop where we want to. And all studies categorizes Target the same as Wal-Mart, nothing new.

As for the folks from the “hinterlands,” they might well enjoy a bit more variety, too. I think our real gain, however, would simply be in keeping local dollars local.

Early in 2006 Waconia amended their zoning ordinance to set certain requirements for “Large Retail Projects” (over 50,000 square feet), including:
a. The City determining that the large retail project is compatible with the City’s comprehensive plan.
b. The City determining that traffic associated with the large retail project will not cause off-site public roads, intersections, or interchanges to function below the service level that exists at the time of application. (If there is an issue, the developer must construct and/or pay for the off-site improvements needed to alleviate the problem.)
c. The City determining that the large retail project is compatible with the community. To support such determination, the applicant is required to provide funding to the City to hire a consultant of the City’s choice with appropriate experience to complete and present an independent community impact analysis. The impact analysis must identify and assess the impact of the large retail project, including positive, negative, and indirect impacts. Topics must include:
1. The types of jobs created;
2. The number of full-time and part time jobs created;
3. The amount of local labor to be used in construction;
4. The geographical market of the business to be conducted;
5. Any plans for phased construction;
6. Whether an over-supply of retail space in the City will be created;
7. The impact on commercial vacancy rates in the City and nearby sites;
8. The impact on the diversity of the City’s economic base by projected elimination of smaller businesses;
9. The projected costs arising from increased demand for and required improvements to public services and infrastructure;
10. Projected tax revenues to the City;
11. Projected impact on land values (both residential and commercial) and potential loss or increase in tax revenues to the City as a result
thereof;
12. An estimation of the revenue to be generated that will be retained and re-directed back into the economy of the City compared to other chain stores and locally-owned, independent retailers in the City;
13. The extent to which higher value development on the site will be precluded, if at all;
14. The projected lifespan of building(s); and
15. The applicant’s policies on charitable giving and volunteer participation in the community.

Not all of these items are issues for Oak Ridge, but several of them are topics of contention right now regarding Crestpointe. I have no doubt that the ongoing community discussions of Crestpointe would be more civil and more productive if an independent analysis were available. If such an analysis had been started more than 2 months ago, when some citizens requested it, the report would be available to us by now.

I’ll try to help. The example you cited was a very small town (pop 9700) that never had a national retail store. Their study was designed to answer fears like, “What will this kind of store do to our community” as much as fill in blanks questions like, “How much will city services cost to support their Super Target”. These are the kinds of things that our experiences have already answered.

Your point 1. Our studies of retail capacity indicate that we can support about 1.1 million sq ft according to the city council comments on Mar 19. If you want to envision an equivalent size, the Opry Mills Mall in Nashville is about that size with some 200 stores with 20 or so considered anchor sized.

It is clear that we have room for CrestPointe. It is clear that we have demand for this expansion of retail opportunities. It is clear that the public investment is small in comparison with Oak Ridger’s cost due to not having it.

2. Yes retail is cost-aware.

3. There are many centers that have been revived after episodes of bad management without major structural changes. However, our mall will probably be torn down since it is currently assessed at below the land value making that an attractive alternative. What it may be used for is highly debatable due to the widely know deed restrictions. Maybe when Wal-Mart sees the writing on the wall with real compeition from CrestPointe, they will choose to develop it.

4. Quite the contrary, actually. The only information that is reliable for the success of a given set of stores is the propriatary customer buying habits, customer modeling, and competitive performance information that major retailers maintain.

And finally, yes, I agree with you that if Crown America were building CrestPointe, I would be concerned too. But your call for an independent analyis, like the one done for Waconia, in which a consultant summarizes already known information and answers, “Who knows” to the others seems to be of little value unless you are just looking for another delay. Already it will be 2010 before we can expect this retail project to start relieving the pressure on our residential property taxes and answering the citizens’ clear cries for help.

I agree that the history of the mall here has taught us many things. For example, we have learned from experience that:
(1) it is possible for a shopping center to be too large for the market;
(2) stores that appear to be doing a good business volume may go out of business if their lease prices are higher than they can justify by their business volume;
(3) once a shopping center appears to be “dead,” it is essentially impossible to attract new tenants into the center (unless, perhaps, the center is so thorough modified that it is no longer recognizable as the “dead mall”); and
(4) the fact that an experienced private developer puts money into a project does not provide assurance that the project will be viable.

These bitter lessons from the history of the Crown American mall contribute to many Oak Ridgers concerns about the Crestpointe proposal, and to a desire to have an independent analysis of the project before a decision is made.

When?

Reading through this report, there are a lot of common sense answers and a lot of “we won’t know exactly until it happens” that pretty well describe any new retail project. Once the referendum gives the city the authority to officially go ahead with our project, I expect that many of the remaining questions that pertain to us can be addressed more satisfactorily.