If all goes according to schedule, Centerville City officials will be announcing a new developer for the Gateway property later this week. According to City Manager Steve Thacker, "a high profile national corporation who wishes to relocate their headquarters to Centerville" will be "building a three or four story class-A professional building" as the first phase of the development.

The property includes a former city park and ball diamond and is located between the Frontage Road and 400 West just north of Parrish Lane. It's a 10.5-acre parcel that's been at the center of public debate since the city's decision to sell it a more than a year ago. At that time, a development team of Richard Woodbury and Paul Evans submitted plans that underwent extensive review and finally received acceptance from the city. However, according to Thacker, "the proposal announced a year ago is just not going to happen."

Final negotiations with the Woodbury/Evans team broke down because, in the city's estimation, the developer wanted too much in the way of financial incentives. "The city council was unwilling to agree to as much tax increment as Woodbury/Evans wanted," said the city manager.

By law, the city council, acting as the Centerville Redevelopment Agency, may grant incentives to developers by reimbursing some of their up-front improvement costs. The money comes from property tax generated on the developed land. Called the tax increment program, it covers certain types of infrastructure improvements incurred in the initial development of land, such as streets, sidewalks and the like.

Now, nearly a year after the rejected original development was announced, the city is close to finalizing an agreement with a new developer. Thacker said he couldn't name the high-profile company until a few final details were ironed out. He said those details should be resolved in the next few days and the announcement would be made public by Thursday or Friday.

Plans are also being made for a public meeting where citizens can give their input before everything is finalized. More than likely, that meeting will be on Tuesday, February 1, on the city's regular council meeting night.

The Gateway development is part of the city's master plan for the Parrish Lane area. It's the main artery into the city and has undergone extensive development since Dayton-Hudson purchased land and built Super Target around four years ago. Since that time, Home Depot, several fast food restaurants, Payless Shoes, the Lone Star restaurant, a hair salon, a new gas station, and a car dealership have been built in the area. Other existing merchants have remodeled and upgraded their property. More land is available in the Centerville Marketplace for new businesses and the city is reviewing a master plan that will integrate mixed use of the undeveloped acreage east of Target and Home Depot.