Bass Pro Shops in East Ridge along I-75 is set to open in 2016.Thanks in part to all the moving parts and complexity of a still-unfolding plan to get Bass Pro Shops in East Ridge, a surprise $600,000 bureaucratic hurdle has emerged between city leaders and getting the project done.
"It hurts a little bit to have to pay this amount of money," said East Ridge Mayor Brent Lambert, "but the overall value of what this project is going to do for East Ridge, it's worth that and then some."
East Ridge will have to pay the Tennessee Department of Transportation $603,000 to get property restrictions from 1999 lifted from the 6.5-acre tract once used for a fire hall.
The city was given a deal on the fire hall property -- paying 30 percent of the $175,000 market value in 1999 -- since it would house a public utility building.
The city paid $50,000 for the land.
Since then, a fire hall has been built, then demolished, on the property, and for several recent months, developers have moved tons of dirt out of nearby Camp Jordan and filled in the low-lying area that will house Bass Pro Shops, anchor for the bigger Jordan Crossing retail development.
When plans for the Jordan Crossing project started coming together back in 2010, East Ridge officials asked the state to lift the use restrictions on the fire hall property.
The state recently agreed to lift the conditions, if East Ridge would agree to pay the remaining 70 percent of the land's 2015 -- not 1999 -- market value.
Brent Lambert
Bass Pro Shops"They could say go ahead and pay 71 percent of the appraised value from 1999 and we're done," said Lambert.
Instead, "they ordered a brand-new appraisal," and "the appraised value has gone up quite a bit," he said.
According to the new appraisal, the now-improved fire hall property is valued at roughly $850,000.
The city's obligation to TDOT -- 70 percent of $850,000 -- came out to be $603,000.
The snag is the only thing holding the project back, said Lambert.
TDOT officials, on the other hand, say this is how the process had to work, according to state and federal law.
When the deed was originally written, "if the city used the property for anything other than for a fire hall, ownership of the property would revert to the State," said Jennifer Flynn, TDOT spokeswoman.
Therefore a "reversionary clause" was required, she said.
Nearly a year ago, Bass Pro Shops announced plans to build an 85,000-square-foot Outpost store near Camp Jordan.
The brand -- said by company officials to draw customers from more than 50 miles who stay 2.5 hours on average -- is one of the most-recognized in the country for outdoor outfitting.
And the entrance of a Bass Pro Shops in East Ridge was considered a "triggering event" for the formation of a 980-acre Border Region Retail Tourism Development District -- an area where tax incentives are given to cities to keep major investments inside Tennessee -- by state economic officials.
Lambert said to keep the project going, the city will pay the $603,000 difference out of its reserve fund.
He said the city is fully capable of paying the difference.
"We're in a really good financial standing right now," he said. "It really won't be a problem to find the money."
Lambert also said because the $603,000 is part of development costs inside the border retail district, the city eventually will be reimbursed by the state, which agrees to give 75 percent of its share of sales revenue inside incentive districts back to local governments.
"The state will actually reimburse us over time based on increased sales tax revenue within the district," Lambert said. "Right now, we're going to be paying the right hand of the state, and the left hand of the state will be paying us back."
Contact staff writer Alex Green at agreen@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6480.