City commission discusses Lowe's proposal
Commission hears presentation on Tax Increment financing district
By Russ Morgan (Contact)
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
City commissioners again took up discussion regarding proposals that could bring Lowe’s to Emporia at their study session Wednesday morning.
The commission heard a presentation from Dave Olson of DJ Christie, Inc. to discuss the proposed Planned Unit Development and the creation of a tax Increment Financing district at the northeast corner of 24th Avenue and Industrial Road. Olson addressed some of the public concerns brought up at the meeting on Sept. 29 of the Emporia/Lyon County Metropolitan Area Planning Commission.
The commission will take action on the creation of the TIF district at its regular meeting on Oct. 15 at 7 p.m. in the Little Theater at 111 E. 6th Ave. The development company will present what and how TIF works, and there will be a public hearing on the issue.
USNretired (anonymous) says...
So close to elections, too.
October 8, 2008 at 4:31 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
goodoleboy (anonymous) says...
Bringing Lowes in to town in the midst of a recession is pretty funny in my opinion.
October 8, 2008 at 5:12 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
booker5m (anonymous) says...
They havnt told us how far the new tax would go down indust. This group makes it sound like there is no tax and the good fairy will pay it!
October 8, 2008 at 6:24 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
StovePipe (anonymous) says...
I don't understand why we're focusing on bringing in a business that is not going to offer Emporia anything we don't already have and won't generate real jobs for Emporians.
October 8, 2008 at 6:26 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Free4all (anonymous) says...
It will employee quit a few people and any employment we get right now should be welcomed. I happen to know a few people who work at Lowes in Topeka and happen to feed their families with the job. Infact at times like these we should be grateful to anyone coming here to offer our community employment to help feed our families and help our community grow. The ignorance of you people humor me in this town.
October 8, 2008 at 6:38 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
booker5m (anonymous) says...
On the Commissioners watch we have lost jobs,seen taxes go up,fees on severices go up,streets are getting worse,spent $65,000 on a servey that wasnt needed, take trips to find fast foods rests.And now they want to bring a business we alreay have and that may cost more jobs, more vacant buildings,raise more taxes. Should we keep taking this nosense are do something about it !
October 8, 2008 at 6:42 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
booker5m (anonymous) says...
Free4all you must work for Christies
October 8, 2008 at 6:47 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
slvrnblck (anonymous) says...
booker5--
you must be hiding in a hole
Lowes wants to come here.
They want the land that the Peak's have.
The Peak's have said that they are either selling it to Lowes or doing a residential development.
Lowes will bring in sales tax revenue to our town.
Lowes has reported that $26 million comes from the Emporia area.
Lowes provides better products at better prices than the current stores in town.
Competition is good for those that are willing to compete.
October 8, 2008 at 7:49 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
eiggohp (anonymous) says...
Anything that Christie does, will be bad for Emporia....you haven't seen anything regarding what your taxes will do until you get him involved. If Lowe's itself wants to come, okay, but leave that crooked Christie out of it!!!!!
October 8, 2008 at 8:06 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
booker5m (anonymous) says...
I take it you are buying into the bull they are putting out! Let peaks build the houses!
October 8, 2008 at 8:07 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Happy1 (anonymous) says...
I don't get the it'll create more jobs outlook. In Emporia's (let alone the Nation's) current economic state you will most likely lose a number of the competitors to Lowe's and then there will be that number of people without jobs. Emporia isn't a town of 200,000 people, it is 25,000 plus town! You really think it'll support all these home improvement stores? I've gotten everything I need at Sutherland's, Mark II and Waters. I've honestly never stepped into a Lowe's or Home Depot. I just don't see how this is the time to focus on a Home Improvement store. There has to be something out there that makes more sense, something other than retail.
October 8, 2008 at 8:53 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
I'm with you, Happy. First of all, Lowe's will bring their own management people with them. Store receipts go out of town, they don't stay here. Yes, they will hire some local Emporians, but will they offer them true full-time employment with benefits or 32 hours and no bennies?
With the current economy crisis, home improvements are very likely being put on the back burner. I'm sure Sutherlands and Mark II can already tell us that. Waters seems busy whenever I drive by or go in, but people are fixing small things. No big tear outs. All those guys will hang on, but a Lowe's will possibly kill them. That makes me mad because I think Lowe's is like Wal Mart, a killer of small business.
Let Peaks subdivide and put in homes since it's an option they say. Besides, would Lowe's build here without a TIF? Why no TIF's for Water's, Sutherland's, Mark II ?
I'm all for building something that will employ more people.
October 8, 2008 at 9:21 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
emporian (anonymous) says...
I will be shopping at a Lowe's whether I do it here or in Topeka.
Sutherlands has screwed themselves twice this week with us. Waited 17 minutes to get help the other day. Then they argued with my wife about whether we could get locks keyed the same or not. Finally went to Waters where people actually know something. Mark my words, our Sutherlands is a joke and will not get any more money from us.
October 8, 2008 at 9:32 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Free4all (anonymous) says...
Negative Negative Negative (shaking head) No wonder this town doesnt have a thing going for it. If that company can employee 30 people in this town with full time jobs at $25,000 a year that will be $750,000 in extra income coming to the town plus the sales tax it will recieve and people coming into town to buy stuff from surrounding area. If we dont accept businesses coming to this town trust me someone else will. We need to grow in lots of ways. Yes we have hardware already here but bringing in lowes could lead to others coming here too. Everytime a company talks of coming here someone has to gripe about them and scare them off. I am sick of all the griping and ready to give this town an enema. Lets get this town started with big business and why not start with Lowes. Next could be Target and so on. Along with this could come some industries who see it as a great target area for some factory jobs. Got to start somewhere, with economy looking bleak, lets at least give some Emporians a new job market.
October 8, 2008 at 10:01 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
eatasheep69 (anonymous) says...
I don't have too much problem with Lowe's or any other business coming to town. I'll likely still do my business at the home town stores here first though. My problem with this Lowe's proposal is where they want to put it. There is so much available retail and commercial space here already. I guess I just don't understand why they are only interested in building where it will cause so many traffic problems and other issues with the nearby residents, especially when they have met so much resistance to that location already.
October 8, 2008 at 10:15 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
goodoleboy (anonymous) says...
Free4all,
Wrong,Wrong, Wrong. You are not considering that there will be jobs lost, it will end up lost or absorbed this will end up being a break even or loss when you look at from a job perspective. This will benefit the consumer but I do not see it benefiting the town much. I am all for new business, just not something that we already have. we have a market of 25,000 people which is not a lot from a business perspective, this town could not support big business at the moment.
October 8, 2008 at 10:36 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
methusla (anonymous) says...
Does anyone know for sure what the pay scale will be at Lowes, I really doubt that it will be $25,000.00, if it would be that much then I would reconsider allowing Lowes to come to Emporia, also what guarantees do they offer Emporia that they will not close or reduce their work force after a short while being here. All Emporia would need is another huge empty building to try and do something with.
Also has everyone forgotten what the nations economy is like right now, in case you haven't heard I believe it was ARCHWAY that closed their plant in either Iowa or Ohio just yesterday and all the people that worked there no longer have jobs. Also has everyone forgotten that the president and congress just caused every taxpayer in the U.S. to be 800 billion dollers further in debt., and that President Bush can not gaurantee that any of 800 billion dollars can or will be paid back to the taxpayers, in other words if part or all of the money is not paid back, then you (us) as taxpayers will be expected to pay back all or part of the 800 billion dollars, which if my math is correct will mean that the pay back will cost each and every man, woman and child in the U.S. around $2,667.00 each.
Now, I ask you if you are going to have to pay $2,667.00 to clear up an 800 billion dollar debt., do you think that you (we) are going to have the money to shop at Lowes if it comes to Emporia ?
October 8, 2008 at 10:49 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
Lowe's does not install the products they sell. Instead, they hire local contractors to install them for a set fee. Of course that fee is already a part of the purchase price, and one complaint is that the contractor doesn't get the full fee.
Here's a link to a place where Lowe's employees, current and former have something to say about working for Lowe's. I'm not the least impressed with Lowe's. If they do come here, fine for all of you who love to shop. Have a ball. I won't be shopping there. I'm supporting the home town folks who have been here through thick and thin, paying their taxes without TIF's.
http://www.indeed.com/forum/cmp/Lowes...
October 9, 2008 at 6:16 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
slvrnblck (anonymous) says...
goodoleboy---
I believe you are wrong wrong wrong.
If a Lowes comes here and brings in a couple of other smaller specialty stores and a couple of restaurants like what is proposed it will create more jobs. Furthermore, attracting a store like a Lowes might attract other businesses to move here. And like I already said ...the study showed that $26 million was already leaving the Emporia area. Why do you suppose that is? Is it maybe because there is a need for another store? Or, it might be that some of our current stores don't or can't take care of their own.
And why would we want 150k in property tax income when we could have 300k in sales tax income?
October 9, 2008 at 9:15 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
goodoleboy (anonymous) says...
Those are assumptions, and restaurant jobs are hardly worth noting, they are not the knid of jobs one could think about feeding a family with. By your logic we should have a Dillard's or Macy's here, or even a Cabelas, we lose a good deal of revenue here becuase we have merchants that do not offer what people want( i.e. dining and clothing) how much of that goes to Topeka and KC? A lot more than the traffic going to Lowes I can guarantee that. This more of a sidegrade than an upgrade, and considering the current economic climate, a gamble. My money is that Lowes changes their minds when they look at this again, hard times put home improvements and construction to the back of list, and we are headed for at least 2 years of recession, like it or not.
October 9, 2008 at 9:52 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
kublue2007 (anonymous) says...
For all of you Lowes haters......We can either get busy living or get busy dying. LETS ROLL WITH IT!!!!!!!!!!!
October 9, 2008 at 10:54 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
gogreen (anonymous) says...
Hey guess what!? I'm going to Lowes this weekend...cause I'm remodeling my bedroom. I love Lowes. They also have a credit card where you don't pay interest or payments for a whole year...man..that's awesome. Hey, they also drove all the way down to my house when I ordered shingles for my new roof. Who woulda thought....
October 9, 2008 at 10:57 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
momus (anonymous) says...
First, for that 26 million number being cited here, I call big time BS. Looking at the numbers from the Buxton study (which are still high) we have 5.7 million dollar leakage in the different categories that Lowe's carries TOTAL. Yet, this developer wants us to believe (without making the raw data available) that the people of Emporia are spending 10% of thier total sales volume in one store outside of Emporia. Yeah, right. The fact that we show a leakage total for all stores in appliance, tool, garden and home improvement sections that is 1/5 the number this developer gave us should tell everyone all they need to know about the information being provided by the developer.
Secondly, the sales numbers being given are GROSS numbers. The NET effect of this development will be minimal, and since sales taxes used for the TIFF and TDD repayment will be largely captured sales, this development puts us in a net negative cash position. If a multi-billion dollar retail company wants to come to Emporia, let them come in areas zoned for their type of development and without tax incentives. It's the same thing that we expect from the local merchants, and that level playing field is the very definition of free and fair competition that some on this blog are embracing in regards to the Lowe's devleopment.
October 9, 2008 at 12:37 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
spensanity (anonymous) says...
Has anyone thought about the chance that Interstate Brands and Tyson may totally pull out of this town for good? How many people will be left to shop at Lowe's then? The TIF will be left for the rest of us to deal with. I enjoy shopping at Lowe's and would like to have one closer but at what expense? The City Commission needs to look into the existing businesses we have in town to see how long they will stick around if Tyson and Interstate Brands move out. Just another thing to think about while trying to decide Lowe's fate.
October 9, 2008 at 1:53 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
notasheeple (anonymous) says...
Emporian.. If your that upset with Sutherlands than contact the owner or if you go to there website you can contact the corporate office they WILL contact the owner.
Ask how do I know this.. Do they now ASK you for your friends of the family card?
October 9, 2008 at 3:49 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
dale011 (anonymous) says...
Just say no to TIF districts. We can't afford to maintain what we have here now.
October 9, 2008 at 4:40 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
eiggohp (anonymous) says...
Heck, Christie was making plans to bring 17 restaurants, 14 movie theaters, all kinds of retail shops and even a indoor water sports arena and sports complex to Junction City...this all went by the way-side.....thank heavens for that city that is up to the top of their heads in debt already.....and a lot of it was caused by David Christie!!!
October 9, 2008 at 4:42 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )