NORTH SALT LAKE — Even though Eaglewood Village may be nothing more than fencing and signs for a while yet, North Salt Lake officials aren’t too worried.

The proposed development, which had its initial groundbreaking in December 2007 but hasn’t yet achieved vertical construction, has been one of the construction projects hit hard by the recession. City officials are being patient with Compass Development’s current efforts to free up some financing for the project, since even if the development falls through the city won’t be out any money.

“There’s going to be no drain on the city finances,” said North Salt Lake Mayor Shanna Schaefermeyer. The city is involved in no bonds or special assessment areas related to the project, and so will have no financial responsibility if the development falls through.

Plus, the drainage and ground-settling work that have already been done to the property can be seen as improvements. “If another developer has to come in and look at it, we have a better piece of property to offer him than we did before,” she said.

Most of the work that has been done on the property to date, as well as the majority of investment from the city, has been on the property’s storm drains. Given the drainage issues caused by the property’s former life as a gravel pit, North Salt Lake City Manager Collin Wood said that those improvements would have been necessary no matter what else happened to the property.

“Several of the storm drain improvements are already in, so our investment’s been pretty good,” said Wood. “We haven’t been hanging out there with this.”

Still, city officials recognize that several developments all the way from Farmington to Sugar House have run into serious economic slowdown, but they haven’t yet given up on Eaglewood Village becoming a reality.

“A lot of these types of projects statewide are essentially on hold,” said North Salt Lake Community Development Director Blaine Gehring. “They’re not necessarily dead, but they’re waiting for some of their financing to be let loose.”

Compass Development principal Ben Lowe said that the details of some potential new financing are still being worked out, but arrangements are not yet finalized to the point where they have been comfortable presenting anything to the city.

Despite this lack of information, Mayor Schaefermeyer still sees potential in the development, although she believes that to remain viable it will have to shift the selling focus somewhat.

“The homes that will be in the development are in the range that are still selling, but I think that commercial land will be the impetus to get it started rather than the retail we were banking on because of the housing,” she said. As if in echo of this, the most prominent sign still up next to the property advertises for Eaglewood Corporate Center rather than Eaglewood Village.

The city is underscoring its hope in Eaglewood by recently finalizing arrangements for a CDA (Community Development Agreement) with Davis County, meant to direct a portion of future property tax increment towards the development. The CDA money, however, only comes out of any extra property tax value that Compass adds to the land, so if the development never goes vertical then the developers never see any money.

“If they can pull off a development there, who knows?” said Wood. “Only time will tell.”

jwardell@davisclipper.com