Cold Spring has taken the next steps on Cold Spring Pointe, a potential mixed-used development across from the city’s Meijer Shopping Center, at Monday’s city council meeting.
Council members passed a resolution that approved the bonds for Midland Atlantic Properties, a Cincinnati-based real estate developer, the firm responsible for the plan.
Last September, the Cold Spring Planning & Zoning Commission approved a zone change for approximately 70 acres of land located along the southeast corridor of Alexandria Pike and the AA Highway that would be the future site of Cold Spring Pointe.
The resolution allowed for the issuance of up to $90 million in industrial revenue bonds in order to pay for the development.
Representatives from Midland Atlantic were present at the meeting Monday night to clarify the next steps and plans for an update in mid-February.
“We are moving forward on closing on this [property] and we wanted to get this adopted before the actual closing,” said Jim Parsons with Keating Muething & Klekamp Law and a council member for Midland Atlantic. “Just a few things to reiterate, these bonds are not the debt of the city population. They’re part of the project itself in the developer and city is actually at no financial obligation or payment at all. They’re acting as a conduit issuer on the situation.”
The industrial revenue bonds, or IRBs, are municipal debt issued by a government agency on behalf of a private sector company. The city has help from an underwriting financial institution like a bank and then loans the money with a comparatively low interest rate to the firm to offset the cost of early construction. The developer must pay the IRBs back over time, and according to Parson, the life cycle of the loan for the multi-use development will be between 30 and 40 years.
These bonds are often used to attract business to communities and if the developer defaults it has no direct impact to increasing taxes on the city.
According to Midland Atlantic representatives, after closing on the property, the city has to adopt the annexation ordinance and then finalize it.
Ongoing traffic studies are being submitted during this time, according to the Midland Atlantic representatives.
The plans, previously reported on in September, include a space for a 48,840-square-foot anchor grocery store, as well as two spaces for big box retailers. The complex will also include a professional office building on the north end of the site. Those buildings will be surrounded by a total of 1,025 surface parking spaces and parcels for restaurants and other retail outlets.
Last year, WCPO reported that the site’s plan is consistent with other developments that feature Publix, a Florida-based supermarket chain. As of now, there has been no confirmation on what grocery store chain will anchor the development.