City preps sale of Center Pointe parcel
Site at corner of 16th St./4th Ave. intersection
Yuma is getting ready to sell the one empty corner at 16th Street and 4th Avenue, now branded as Center Pointe.
The City Council was introduced to an ordinance declaring the 3.85 acres of city-owned property on the southwest corner of the busy intersection as surplus and authorizing the sale, lease or exchange of the property.
The ordinance will go back before the council for possible adoption at the next council meeting scheduled for Oct. 3.
The parcel, which once housed the Goodwill Career Center, has been cleared of structures and is ready for redevelopment after the completion of infrastructure improvements.
Declaring the property as surplus for sale, lease or exchange will enable the property to be returned to productive use and back to the public tax rolls, thereby generating additional property tax revenues.
The property is a key piece of the 16th Street and 4th Avenue Redevelopment Plan and considered a highly attractive commercial site at the corner of one of the city’s busiest intersections, which sees more than 25,000 vehicles per day.
A Request for Proposal is being prepared to facilitate the disposal of the property. During the meeting, Councilman Mike Shelton said a constituent had asked whether the property would be subject to a competitive bidding process. City Administrator Greg Wilkinson replied yes and that staff members are already drafting the RFP documents, which will be ready to go if the council adopts the ordinance.
He explained that as part of the process, bidders will
have to provide proof of financial backing and details of what they intend to build, and a committee will evaluate the appropriateness of the proposed development.
“Obviously, it’s the busiest intersection in the whole area and a very valuable piece in our community so we want to make sure what goes in there is proper,” Wilkinson said.
Improvements to the Center Pointe intersection were completed last year. The $7.25 million widening project added a third through-lane, dedicated right-turn lanes and dual left-turn lanes in all four directions. It also has bike lanes, raised medians and other improvements.
The project was designed to alleviate traffic congestion at the intersection, but city officials expected it to do much more.
“This project has served as a catalyst for economic development, as exemplified in the Sprouts store under construction now at the intersection’s northwest corner (the store opened in July), the new buildings that went into the Yuma Mesa shops on the southeast corner and the new Taco Bell building on the southwest corner once the project was announced,” Wilkinson previously said.
As for the open sections on the southwest corner, Wilkinson added at the time, “We now will have an appealing location for a future office building, retail center or mixed use facility.”