The city council of Newcastle has approved the services of FSB Architects & Engineers, also known as Frankfurt- Short-Bruza Associates, P.C., for a master development plan on the City of Newcastle Fox Property.
This is the approximate nine-acre property the City has purchased at the southeast corner of Fox Lane and U.S. Highway 62. It runs from Fox Lane to the south to S.E. 3rd Street, and it goes east to the back of the housing addition.
The intent is to find the best use of the property for taxgenerating businesses.
Mayor Karl Nail said the City has had multiple retail providers who have wanted to locate on US-62 in Newcastle, but could not find any willing sellers.
Nail said, “The City hopes to have the Fox Property designed and in place so if there are sales tax-generating retailers who are looking for a location, hopefully we will have options for them so they can locate in the city. These will provide sales tax to the City which can in turn be used for city services.”
Services to be provided by FSB include master planning, rezoning for a Planned Unit Development (PUD), documentation for covenants, codes and restrictions, platting services, civil engineering design services, cost estimating, bidding services, construction administration services, and post construction services.
According to the City of Newcastle’s contract, post construction services will include generation of marketing materials to be utilized by the City for the purpose of advertising the sale of the property.
FSB will also answer requests for information from prospective developers regarding the lots, the PUD and any covenants, codes and restrictions.
City Manager Kevin Self said this is for preliminary plats, and when lots begin to sell, they will come back and do more plats.
Nail said, “We looked at lots of different options, and our goal is to have places available for possible restaurants, or fast-food. We entertained options from several groups to design so we could be in a position to market the property with the highest return, the most units.”
Nail said the city council will look at the various options FSB comes up with and then pick a design for the location and move forward.
“We have some good ideas based on the size of the property and location,” Nail said.
He added that some of the property is a little deep for just fast food and there’s plenty of room for full-service restaurants, their parking, and other amenities.
Nail said FSB will help the City to design in a manner where some areas have retail up front and possibly retail in the back, as well.
He said, “We’ll also have the overall engineering on the property.”
