City OKs rebate deal for retail center

LAWTON – Lawton City Council signed off Tuesday on an agreement that would help the developer of a proposed retail complex in west Lawton cover the cost of improving the site.

The council unanimously approved a sales tax rebate agreement with Cache Properties Inc., which is developing the property at 4800 NW Cache Road for the first phase of the proposed Mathis Center. Site improvements will include installing traffic signals at 50th Street and Cache Road, which will make it easier for westbound traffic to enter the site; putting in a 12-inch water line; and extending an existing sewer line.

Those improvements will cost about $782,350, but the developer will recover up to $750,000 of the cost through the rebate agreement. The rebate will be paid from sales taxes generated exclusively by the Mathis Center, which will include purchases of construction equipment for the project and sales from stores within the complex once it opens to the public.

If the Mathis Center does not generate enough sales to reach the $750,000 mark during the seven-year rebate period, the city will only return to the developer the amount of actual sales tax that was generated, according to the agreement. For example, if the retail center only generates enough sales to produce $500,000 in sales tax, then the city would pay the developer $500,000.

Cache Properties will not receive any additional incentives once the city has paid the developer $750,000, or at the end of the sales tax rebate period.

The developer’s application originally discussed a 76,000-square-foot building that would house an Ashley HomeStore, a Mathis Sleep Center and a Mathis Furniture Outlet, said Deputy City Attorney Timothy Wilson. After approving the application in July, the council authorized the city attorney’s office to draw up the rebate agreement.

Cache Properties later said it did not want to limit itself to those three stores, Wilson said.

“They wanted flexibility,” he said. “What if they got one? What if they got two? What if they got all three or a combination of those?”

The original application said that Mathis Brothers Furniture would be the anchor tenant for the retail complex, Wilson said. But Cache Properties wanted to expand the list of possible stores for the first phase of the complex.

“The language that the developer proposed would be language that says phase one stores would be those stores branded under the Mathis family of retail stores,” he said. “For example, Mathis Outlet or Mathis Sleep Center, or another nationally recognized home furniture retail brand – examples of Ashley Furniture or La-Z-Boy Furniture store – each of which is operated and managed by Mathis Brothers.”

Wilson said a Mathis Brothers store will still serve as the anchor tenant for the complex, but the original three stores are not guaranteed to be part of the mix. The other terms of the agreement did not change.

The repayment schedule will remain the same, as long as the phase one stores fulfill the terms of the agreement.

“To get the rebate once the facility opens, it has to be one of those type of furniture stores managed and operated by Mathis Brothers,” Wilson said. “If there’s three stores that qualify, the rebate would be for three stores. If it’s just one store, the rebate would be just for one store.”