DEANA STROISCH
The State Journal-Register
Springfield aldermen on Thursday gave initial approval to providing $3.5 million in tax increment financing to help Hy-Vee Co. build a supermarket along MacArthur Boulevard. The agreement was put on the consent agenda for final approval next week.
Hy-Vee officials have said construction on the site of the former Kmart, 2115 S. MacArthur Blvd., could begin in the spring and take less than a year.
Peter Hosch, Hy-Vee’s assistant vice president of store development and real estate, said the company is excited about locating a store along MacArthur Boulevard.
Hy-Vee plans to build a full-service grocery store and a gasoline station-convenience store on the site of the old Kmart, along with the adjoining building that formerly housed Spillway Lanes bowling alley. The company also recently purchased the former Town & Country Shell station, which closed in October.
The MacArthur Boulevard TIF was created less than a year ago, and no “increment” has been earned so far. The mayor has previously said that Hy-Vee would be reimbursed by the increment that it generates from its own project. The city estimates it will take 12 to 15 years for Hy-Vee to be reimbursed.
Under the agreement, TIF money could be used to repay Hy-Vee for expenses such as right-of-way acquisition, environmental and asbestos testing and abatement, demolition and exterior reconstruction, parking lot reconstruction and site clearing.
MacArthur Boulevard has been without a supermarket since Schnucks closed its Town and Country shopping center store in 1996.
Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 