CUYAHOGA FALLS: It appears that a major tenant for the Portage Crossing development is out.
Menards, a home improvement chain, is no longer a part of the redevelopment of the former State Road Shopping Center, according to city documents.
Falls City Council’s Finance Committee opted Monday night to table a proposal to alter the city’s sales agreement to sell the site to Stark Enterprises.
Developer Robert Stark was scheduled to close on the sale Oct. 31. The amended sales agreement would push the sale date back to March 13.
A memo signed by Falls Development Director Sue Truby indicates that Menards may no longer to be in the picture.
One of the owners of a parcel on the edge of the proposed Portage Crossing site, which is also the owner of the former State Road Shopping Center, is asking $3.5 million for land occupied by a Pizza Hut. The land would need to be acquired for a 236,000-square-foot, two-story Menards to fit into the development.
Stark has promised a movie theater would replace the Wisconsin-based home improvement chain as a tenant.
Although the revised sales agreement no longer lists Menards as a tenant, Mayor Don Robart said Monday evening that there is no indication that the retailer or any of the other business has left the project.
“We can’t say where they are going to be,” he said. ‘‘Even though Giant Eagle and Menards are not talking, [it] doesn’t mean things aren’t happening.”
Councilwoman Diana Colavecchio, who chairs the Finance Committee, said the administration has asked council to delay discussion on a revised sales agreement.
Colavecchio, part of the committee that chose Stark as the developer in 2009, said she believes it is best to hold off discussions until the city’s administration and the developer can present the council with signed agreements from tenants for the 26-acre project.
“My biggest concern is that the ordinance is as tidy as it can be, and that the ordinance is supported by written agreements in place, so that we as council know exactly what we’re voting on,’’ Colavecchio said. “We don’t have that yet.”
The councilwoman expressed surprise that the issue over ownership of the needed outlot hasn’t been resolved.
Gina Mace can be emailed at ginamace2@gmail.com.