10-05-2025
Board votes to remove lumber store from tax district
A board that oversees one of the taxing districts for the proposed Prospect Village development approved a petition Friday from a lumber and materials business to be excluded from that district.
The five-member board of the community improvement district for a future sports complex to be constructed in the village voted 5-0 to allow Herrman Lumber, 3012 E. 12th St., to be removed. The petition will have to go to the Joplin City Council, which will have to vote on it as well, according to discussions at the board meeting.
When the developer of Prospect Village, Woodsonia Real Estate, and the city of Joplin proposed the CID earlier this year, the boundaries of it were largely confined to properties surrounding the development site. That site extends along Geneva Avenue, just east of Range Line Road, from south of 20th Street to the 32nd Street area. But the tax boundary also was drawn along Range Line north to take in Herrman Lumber.
At a Jan. 20 public hearing during a City Council meeting on the proposal, Danny Burke, chief operating officer of Herrman Lumber, said the company is a small family-owned business with five locations. The store in Joplin has been here since before 1961 and over that time it has generated significant tax revenue for the city.
The business largely sells to contractors. It is not a competitor of big-box retail stores such as Lowe's, Home Depot and Menards, that cater to do-it-yourself customers, the council was told. At the CID board meeting Friday, Chris Williams, the city's legal consultant on the development, said the basis for Herrman's petition for removal is that 'the nature of the big box stores was fundamentally different' than Herrman's business model.
Burke said in January that he had concerns about the tax boundary being extended for several blocks in order to take in only Herrman Lumber.
'It appeared to be an intentional and targeted effort to add Herrman while omitting other businesses, he said. That gives competitors an advantage because the taxes would not have to be collected by similar businesses, such as Meek's, and materials businesses that cater to builders operate on a tight margin, he said.
Woodsonia president Drew Snyder said at a January meeting with city officials that he would work with Herrman.
To do that, he has added some other businesses to the taxing district. That includes Lowe's, Home Depot and Menards, though Menards did not agree, the board was told. Also to be added are Autotronics, a manufacturer of electromagnetic clutches, brakes and solenoids, a strip mall along 32nd Street, and some of Woodsonia's properties in the 32nd Street Place development around 32nd Street and Hammons Boulevard. Those properties include The Boulevard, a 250-unit apartment complex there, and the soon to be completed B&B Theater, the CID board was told. There also will be some restaurants in that area added, the CID board was told.
$307 million development
The purpose of community improvement tax districts is to charge an extra cent in sales tax that can be applied to the construction costs. In this case, the village is a $307 million development.
The development would provide a youth sports facility for traveling teams and other events, an apartment complex of more than 300 units, a retail anchor and other shops, a hotel, and a public park among other features.
At a public hearing on the tax proposals earlier this year, Snyder, president of the project's development firm, Woodsonia Real Estate, based in Omaha, Nebraska, said the development will be 78 acres located south of 20th Street along Geneva Avenue east of Range Line Road. The sports complex will be on the east side of that acreage and a retail area will be located near 20th Street and Davis Boulevard.
A community improvement district designated for the sports complex would impose a 1-cent sales tax on top of existing city, county and state sales taxes. There also is an overlapping community improvement district covering the development that would collect another 1-cent sales tax.
Snyder said the $307 million cost to build the project would be paid by about $147 million in equity and debt by the developer, about $38 million collected from a tax increment financing district, and about $122 million derived from the two community improvement districts. One of those CIDs would not be activated until later, he said.
'This has been a huge lift, and we have been working on this project for a long time to get to this point,' Snyder said earlier this year, thanking city staff for its assistance.
At this point, 'we will be able to activate several project areas nearly immediately to provide quick action' on the project start, the developer said.
Woodsonia is the same company that is finishing the 32nd Street Place at 32nd Street and Hammons Boulevard. That brought a Menards home improvement store, a 250-unit apartment complex and B&B Theatres to Joplin. The theater is expected to be completed in July, Snyder said Tuesday.
Snyder said the tax increment financing district, which diverts part of the property and business taxes in the boundaries of the district, will also offset some of the development costs. The sports complex will be owned by a CID and will revert to ownership by the city of Joplin when the development's debt is satisfied.
27,000 hotel nights
The sports complex will likely host 28 to 30 indoor youth sports tournaments a year.
'This is a huge industry across the nation,' Snyder said previously. It is projected that the draw to the complex will sell 27,000 hotel nights a year.
A representative of the Baker Tilley financial advisory firm hired by city officials to evaluate the proposal testified at a meeting of the city's Tax Increment Finance Commission recently that Woodsonia's project costs were reasonable for that type of development.
The commission also was told that the project is eligible for TIF financing because the location is a blighted area and needed remediation of parts of the property. Snyder said there are several factors for that determination. There are old mining sites on the property, creosote contamination left by treatment methods International Paper used to preserve utility poles at its operations there, and other environmental concerns that require remediation. There also are Federal Emergency Management Agency-designated flood plains and floodways on the property that have to be addressed. Because of that, the project site meets the definition of blighted property in state law, allowing the TIF district.
In addition, the project as of May 20, 2024, involved a plan to build an 85,000-square-foot sports complex, 'but the City Council wanted a larger, more regional facility, so that's what we did. We expanded the district and expanded the tax base' to build a larger complex. 'This will be a top facility in the state of Missouri' that could compete against other cities with sports complexes, Snyder said.
