Later this month, the Sanford City Council and the Lee County Commissioners will formally consider participation in a redevelopment project that could potentially transform and revitalize the blighted and still-declining Riverbirch Shopping Center on Spring Lane. If this redevelopment project proceeds, it will be a testament to the persistence and creative problem-solving of community leaders from both the City of Sanford and Lee County, as well as the effectiveness of the public private partnership model embodied by the Sanford Area Growth Alliance (SAGA).
The Sanford City Council is considering partnering with CASTO Development Company (CASTO) in an economic development project to completely and dramatically redevelop the blighted Center. The City will hold a public hearing on September 16 to hear City residents’ opinions on the matter, then hold a vote on whether to proceed. Lee County’s support, if approved by the Lee County Commissioners at their meeting on September 15th, would be via an interlocal agreement with the City of Sanford, through which the County could reimburse the costs of public water and wastewater infrastructure necessary to support redevelopment of the shopping center site in an amount up to $2M, with investments from the City totaling approximately $4M in additional assistance.
CASTO is a highly-respected commercial real estate development firm based in Columbus, OH, with a growing footprint of successful commercial and mixed-use developments in NC and throughout the Southeast. Nearby properties include the 100+ acre Park West Village in Morrisville and a newly announced 75 acre development in Clayton. After considering dozens of potential site configurations and designs, CASTO plans to demolish and replace most of the Center’s current buildings and other infrastructure, add modern amenities, and create a premium retail experience that could include a Target, a new-to-market grocery store, and associated high quality commercial development. Successful recruitment of Target and the new-to-market grocer are cited as conditions for the City of Sanford’s partnership with the developer.
When complete, the redeveloped center would bring more than $60M in new capital investment to the site, expand the current retail square footage of the center by more than 50,000 sf, and generate an estimated $100M in retail sales annually, with potential new property and sales tax revenues at the local level totaling more than $3M each year.
A recent SAGA study indicates that Sanford and Lee County currently experience more than $74M in “leakage,” or retail purchases that are currently being made by Lee County residents in the counties next door due to the absence of a premium retail option like Target within the City and County’s sales tax jurisdictions.
If the City of Sanford and Lee County choose to move forward with CASTO to redevelop Riverbirch Corner Shopping Center, a significant portion of the sales taxes from purchases currently being made by Lee County residents outside the county could soon be available to fund schools, first responders, and other vital public services in Sanford and Lee County, rather than Wake County and Moore County and beyond. This collaborative redevelopment project will be celebrated as a truly transformative economic development win for this generation of Sanford and Lee County residents and the next.
Jimmy Randolph, CEO