The total investment on the mixed-use Liberty Center project is more than $350 million, paid for with public and private sources. Scheduled to open in fall 2015, the project ended up receiving more than $49 million in funding backed by taxpayer dollars when including a $12 million loan previously approved by Ohio Water Development Authority, Brossart said.
“The public financing was finished and all the private financing… fell into place as well,” Brossart said. “All of the financing is really done for the project.”
Liberty Center has been described as one of the largest developments in Butler County history and as a city within a township. The shopping, dining, residential and office complex is being built in Liberty Twp. at the intersection of Interstate 75, Ohio 129 and Liberty Way. Construction started earlier this year on more than 1 million-square-feet encompassing about 65 acres. Three anchor tenants — Dillard’s department store, dinner-and-movie theater CineBistro and Dick’s Sporting Goods — have been announced along with AC Hotels by Marriott.
“Construction is proceeding on schedule for the October 2015 opening, and we don’t have any new tenant news to share at this time,” said Beau Arnason, executive vice president for developer Steiner + Associates of Columbus.
The Butler County Port Authority sold in November $37 million worth of bonds on behalf of Butler County Commissioners, Liberty Twp., and the Liberty Community Authority.
That funding pays for the center’s infrastructure such as streets, parking, utilities and sewer and water systems, and is part of a Master Development Agreement outlining terms of the project’s tax incentives signed in July 2013 by the township, the county and Steiner.
In fact, Brossart said the bond issues received favorable interest rates that benefit the local governments as well. The less money spent to pay back the debt, the more money it frees to make other public property improvements in the same area as Liberty Center for roads, parking garages, sewer lines and other infrastructure, he said.
“We couldn’t have hit the market at a better time,” he said. “That’s important because as time goes on, there will need to be more improvements.”
If everything goes the way government officials and the developer hopes, the project will pay for itself from increased property values and generate millions in new sales and income tax revenues. Liberty Center sits in a Tax Increment Financing District, which means new tax revenues generated from the center will pay for the debt (bonds) Butler County and Liberty Twp. committed to the project.
Other funding will be generated by a 0.5 percent sales fee charged on purchases made at the retail center and an assessment on property owners. The Liberty Community Authority, similar to a homeowner’s association with a seven-member board, will control those funds.
The developer is required to make minimum annual payments of approximately $2 million to pay the debt back, beginning when the center opens in 2015, according to the development agreement. Steiner’s payments will come from the tax increment financing district — the additional property taxes the developer would have paid on property improvements will instead go to pay down the debt.
Only in the worst case scenario that the project fails will taxpayers be on the hook.
“Things are definitely moving forward in the right direction,” Thomas Gabelman, an attorney hired by Butler County as private counsel in negotiations, told commissioners at their Nov. 24 meeting.
As of the end of September, more than 70 percent of Liberty Center’s first phase has been leased or sold, Gabelman said.
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