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Loading...Tooele City officials won’t be announcing the big-box retailers anchoring a proposed shopping complex after all.
After promising last month that such an announcement would be made on Dec. 5 at the Tooele City Council meeting, Mayor Patrick Dunlavy backtracked Monday.
“Until I get more definitive information from the retailers, it just would be premature,” Dunlavy said. “Big companies, I’m learning, are very protective of their names.”
The development, which is planned for 33 acres on the southwest corner of Main Street and 1000 North, is expected to break ground next year. Dunlavy said it will be the biggest retail project ever built in Tooele County.
The complex will be constructed by Ball Ventures, a real estate investment, lending and development company based in Idaho Falls, Idaho, and South Jordan-based developer Eagle Pointe, according to Tooele City economic development consultant Randy Sant. Calls made to Ball Ventures and Eagle Pointe about their involvement with the project were not returned.
Sant said there are several reasons why the tenants can’t be announced now.
“We thought Ball Ventures would come out with a press release about the project, but they decided not to release it yet,” he said. “We also didn’t have renderings ready and we want to redo the site plan because the one we have is old. We just don’t have everything ready.”
Sant said he doesn’t know when the city will be ready to announce which tenants will be coming in, but said the city will not make the announcement until everything is 100 percent ready to go.
“We decided we need more time because we don’t have all the details yet,” Sant said. “We just want to make sure all the tenants have signed their contracts before we go public. We have an agenda, the tenants and developers have agendas, and they don’t always match. Nobody wants to go out and make an announcement until we’ve got signed contracts.”
The completed project will include 150,000 to 210,000 square feet of commercial space, in addition to residential housing and office space. It will generate new sales tax to the city of between $500,000 and $650,000 a year, Sant said.
