The north phase of the project is nearing completion and the first restaurant opened last month. Many apartments are now occupied.
The Westwood City Council tonight will hold a public hearing on changes to the agreements with the developer of the Woodside Village project. The potential to make changes to the development agreement have been the point of some public questioning in the past.
The proposed agreement makes several fundamental changes in the public financing arrangement:
It would increase the public financing cap for the south phase of the project
It could release the land – now city owned – for the south phase sooner than anticipated
It changes the completion dates for the south phase
It would add an additional sales tax of .9 percent on retail sales at the Woodside Club
The agreement that is in place now has a Tax Increment Financing plan that allows for 40 percent of the city’s current 1 percent sales tax to be directed to the development – after the current base city sales tax of more than $49,000 is paid to the city. The increment is on sales in the project areas. The TIF also makes new property tax available to defray the development costs with certain restrictions.
The existing agreement also has in place a Community Improvement District that will charge an extra 1.1 percent sales tax on all retail sales in the development. All of the CID proceeds would be available to reimburse the developer for eligible costs.
Under the current agreement, all of the TIF and CID proceeds available to the developer for reimbursement are capped at $22 million. The new agreement raises that to $28 million for eligible costs, but the additional $6 million only applies to the south phase of the project – that portion being built south of 47th Place – and not to the club renovation or the nearly built out north phase. The increase in the cap was requested because of higher construction estimates since the development agreement was first negotiated.
Parts of the north phase of the project are already open. The Blue Sushi Sake Grill opened late last month and a large number of the apartments are occupied or leased. Other retail is scheduled to open this month.
The south phase will include another 244 residential and/or commercial office units and another 16,300 square feet of retail, which could include a grocery.
An expansion and remodeling of the Woodside Club is planned to precede the start of the south phase.
The transfer of the land for the south phase earlier than anticipated is dependent on the developer financing the construction of both the club portion and the south phase at the same time.
A list of FAQs about the project and the changes is posted here.
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