UPDATE PROVIDED ON SITEWORK FOR BRENHAM SHOPPING CENTER PROJECT
City of Brenham officials have given an update on the ongoing sitework at the Baker Katz shopping center project.
The Houston-based developer is currently developing 35 acres of land at the Highway 290-Chappell Hill Street intersection, and plans to build a 200,000 square-foot shopping center at that location.
According to Development Services Director Stephanie Doland, the grading and preliminary sitework has been completed. This included a process called “cut and fill”, which Doland said essentially requires moving earth from one place to another to make the ground more level. The property has over 30 feet of elevation change, and this “cut and fill” process allows dirt and earth material from the higher side of the property to be “cut” and moved to “fill” the lower side of the property. In conjunction with the “cut and fill” process, contractors have compacted the dirt so as to reduce run-off and erosion of the recently re-arranged earthwork.
Doland said crews have stopped working at the site for the meantime to allow dirt to settle in at its new location. According to Doland, engineers recommend allowing the site to sit for multiple months, in order to ensure it has a level and firm pad to build a slab and improvements on it. She said allowing the site to sit stagnant for a few months is necessary to ensure a solid foundation for the new development.
Doland said, while the physical site will not show much progress during the next two to five months, engineers and architects will be preparing and submitting plans to the City of Brenham for review and permitting. Once the permits are ready to be issued, and the site is determined firm enough to build on, then construction will begin.
Earlier this year, Baker Katz entered into a sales tax abatement with the City of Brenham and Washington County for the project. The agreement will reimburse the developer $6 million in sales taxes over a 12-year period, with the city contributing $4 million and the county putting forward $2 million. The city will also contribute roughly $2 million for traffic and infrastructure improvements.
The first wave of retailers and restaurants is expected to open at the shopping center in the summer of 2021.
Don’t underestimate Brenham’s strength for retail market for its size. FYI, Palais Royal lost its lease for an HEB expansion. Also FYI, JCPenny isn’t a strong brand, is closing far more stores than they’re opening, and that doesn’t reflect on the City or County. Also, I doubt that some chain restaurant on a pad site along the highway (e.g. Panda Express, Wendy’s, KFC) is going to compete with the downtown scene. Let’s ease up on the hand wringing, folks.
That said, I can’t say that I’m comfortable with granting sales tax reimbursement to a retail developer without already knowing a tenant lineup, especially as online retailing forces brick-and-mortar retailers to transition more to the sale of services and experiences rather than goods.
Let’s say you get a chain restaurant on a pad site in this shopping center; I expect that there will be several. Is that going to cause more people to eat out? Probably not. Is it going to cause more people from outside of Washington County to visit Washington County just to eat here? Probably not. If a new restaurant is mostly just displacing business from other restaurants, then the City/County government are losing tax revenue from one place in order to pay this retail developer their development incentive, and meanwhile the customer base for existing establishments is stretched more thin. If some other establishments close or cut staff as a result then it isn’t even clear that there is an economic boost. The same reasoning applies to a lot of personal services, like nail salons and barber shops, or bank branches. That is not good policy. I hope that somebody had the foresight to account for such possibilities in the agreement that was approved with the developer.
Also, what happens when a tenant is exempt from paying sales taxes, like a bank branch or a health clinic? Does that distort the developer’s incentives as far as the tenant mix is concerned? Again, I’m not condemning something I haven’t read, but I just hope that somebody thought this through from start to finish.
My two cents. Y’all have a nice day.
It is obvious that the majority of Brenham implants and local city management and planners and politicians don’t appreciate small towns and small town businesses.
Yes, the locals born here can grill their own burgers with beef from Rau’s Meat Market. We don’t mind a short trip to an adjoining county. We believe in everyone paying their share of taxes, especially corporate business.
Hope we can get a JC Penny. An IN N OUT burger would be nice also. Then i would not have to drive to Katy to go shop and grab a burger. PLEASE HURRY!!
If Brenham can not support retail stores like JC Penney’s that closed several years ago, or Palais Royal with its never ending ‘Going Out of Business Sale”, then how on earth do people think we can get new stores to come in. Open your eyes folks! They destroyed all that green space and chased wildlife out of its natural habitat for nothing!! If anything gets built there I will be surprised. Besides that, the Kruse family gave the city land behind that shopping center area to be designated as a park and absolutely NOTHING has been done with that! It’s all talk people!! Just the non-Brenhamites that are running things making empty promises again. Remember the retail center that was to be built 4 years ago at 36 and Salem Road? It ain’t gonna happen!!
So it’s like gonna be like a small mall??
It is a hit and miss situation. I understand the hold on further development due to land settlement. My fear is what may happen to our economic situation once major elections are held such as Presidential! That too can cause hold ups along with types of businesses that the shopping center will draw. It is comman knowledge that many chain stores are closing due to the uprise in internet sales that they did not get on the bandwagon soon enough to take advantage of that type of sales. Chain restaurants are also closing due to lack of business as favorites change do to the preferences of the up and coming younger generations that some refer to as “millenniums” I hope our small business downtown are getting on the internet sale reaching out not just locally to help supplement their walk in business. Would really hate to loose them and the charm of downtown shopping. There is a whole lot to think about. I personally doubt we will see a full shopping center in 2020, but will be very happy if we do.
This is wonderful news for the City of Brenham ! I know the population of Brenham has grown so rapidly in the past twelve years until this shopping center is much needed !
I always have to go to College Station to shop, it will be great not to drive ? miles to go to a nice department store. Excited !! Woo hoo
Looking forward to seeing this project completed. I think this is just what Brenham ( and surrounding towns) need. I look forward to staying in Brenham to shop, Glad to see this is finally in the works.
I’ve been in heavy and civil construction for over 20 years, and I’ve never heard of the “settling” method. Most times the trade contractors are working on top of the site contractors before they’re even close to finished. Something else is going on. Money issues or lease haggling or lost leases.
Why is there a “for lease” sign up at the property? I was under the impression that the retail areas were already spoken for and that’s why they were given the tax break. Now I’m hearing that some retailers have backed out and they don’t have enough businesses to fill the property. They disturbed a lot of wildlife in the area just to have an empty commercial building sitting there.
If you go to the baker katz website you can see the developers plans and you can actually see which parts have already been rented and which are still open. Unfortunately you can’t see who has rented them.
The Bluebonnet Shopping Center sat basically empty for years . I hope this one is different.
Do we know what’s going in?
Yeah Higher Taxes And City get higher pay so they can live in those mansions In the country. And also they can drive new cars to come in town and work to make middle class people pay higher taxes in the city. You can’t see what’s really going on. Come On, take a ride out on these country roads. LOOK OUT 2020.