Princeton project is on hold

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PRINCETON — The old Wal-Mart store redevelopment project has been put on hold.

On Thursday, Princeton City Manager Jeff Fiegenschuh said the city will not go forward with plans to establish a business development district at the old Wal-Mart site, at least until after an agreement is reached between the developers and Church Women United, who own The Closet, a neighboring thrift shop.

The basic problem between the developers and CWU deals with the access to the back of the old Wal-Mart building, which is currently available through a side gate installed by the CWU to monitor its collection site for The Closet.

Fiegenschuh said he and other city leaders have toured The Closet and listened to CWU’s concerns. The city leaders then met with the developers and told them an agreement would have to be reached between those two parties before the city would go ahead with the business development district process.

“Like I’ve said before, this is not a city issue. It’s between them. They have to work it out,” Fiegenschuh said. “We won’t take sides in this matter.  We are neutral.”

CWU President Mary Susan Webster has said the organization supports the development of the Wal-Mart property, but it does not want to remove the gate and lose control of their collection site.

The developers are looking at various options and solutions to reach the back of the Wal-Mart building.

Until an agreement is reached, the city will not go forward with any more discussion on tax incentives for the redevelopment project, Fiegenschuh said.

Concerning tax incentives and a business development district, Fiegenschuh said there are some concerns from the public which he wants to clarify.

The city has not offered any incentives for businesses to locate within that proposed business development district, Fiegenschuh said. The incentives were for the developers. Additional sales tax collected through those proposed new businesses would be sent to the state and then sent by the state to the developers, not the businesses.

Also, the additional sales tax would have been only for new businesses locating within the business development district, not for the existing businesses. If people didn’t want to shop at those new businesses and pay the additional sales tax, they certainly had that option, Fiegenschuh said.

Originally, the proposed business district had included the old Wal-Mart building, the new Lay’s Home Furnishings store, and the office building at the corner of Backbone Road and North Main. Plans were to tear down the office building and rebuild for a new Wahlgren’s drug store. Wahlgren’s has since backed out of that plan, Fiegenschuh said.

Another public concern has been that city officials are just interested in bringing new businesses to town, but not in helping existing businesses, Fiegenschuh said. That’s not true, he added.

The city council budgeted $13,000 last year for local business improvement grants, which helped nine local businesses with upgrade projects. Since the formation of a revolving loan fund, the city has loaned $2.4 million to more than 100 local businesses. The city also has a sales tax rebate incentive for people opening businesses in buildings that were vacant for at least a year.

“As city manager, I support the concept of incentives,” Fiegenschuh said. “I believe in incentives across the board, not just for new businesses, but for existing businesses. Incentives are important for a community’s growth and helps us compete with other communities.”

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