Collinsville soccer project blooming into large-scale, mixed-use development

From the Illinois Business Journal

Collinsville soccer project blooming into large-scale, mixed-use development

By ALAN J. ORTBALS

The proposed professional soccer project in Collinsville is moving forward and expanding far beyond a new stadium, according to Jeff Cooper, managing partner in the law firm of SimmonsCooper LLC and investor in St. Louis Professional Soccer Expansion Group LLC which is pursuing the Professional Soccer League franchise.

While exact plans are still being molded, Cooper has acquired rights to more than 400 acres of land in the Collinsville area and is planning a mixed-use development that will include residential, office and retail components along with the soccer
stadium and multiple soccer fields for amateur play.

James Berg and Rob Christlieb, partners in the real estate development firm, Crossroads Development LLC, are master planning the project and acting as owners'








Crossroads Development LLC is planning a 400-acre, mixed-used project in Collinsville using a 'new urbanism' theme similar to New Town at St. Charles in St. Charles County, Mo. as shown above.

representatives in dealing with a variety of planners and real estate developers.

"We envision a mixed-use development where the residential can help support a Main Street-like retail component," said Berg. "There will also probably be some larger big-box or mid-size-box retailer anchor stores and there will be a youth soccer complex that is going to draw teams from the entire St. Louis metro area on a regular basis for games. It will be a regional hub for tournaments. We'll have a very nice facility there for people, and all the amenities that people expect when they go to those kinds of things."

Berg said the intent is to draw in multiple developers to take pieces of the project and to develop the 400-plus acre tract in two phases. Phase one would contain the soccer stadium and fields, using them as the focal point of the development. Cooper coaxed Berg into moving here from Portland, Ore., where he owned a residential development company, to bring something different to the Southwestern Illinois area.

"We're looking to do something in the new urbanism realm and show that that model can work here in Southwestern Illinois," said Berg. "We're focused on building a community and we think there's a great opportunity there."

New urbanism is an American urban design movement that arose in the early 1980s. New urbanist neighborhoods are designed to contain a diverse range of housing, jobs, goods and services and be "walkable." An example in the St. Louis metro area is New Town at St. Charles.

In addition to his effort to bring a men's MLS team to Collinsville, Cooper is also working on a professional women's team as well. Cooper currently owns a semi-pro women's team called River City East and he has signed a letter of intent for a women's professional team as part of a re-launch of the Women's United Soccer Association league. The WUSA operated in eight U.S. cities from 2001 to 2003 and shut down after the 2003 season. According to Berg, there are seven or eight cities committed to that re-launch right now. Berg said that the women's team would probably start play at Busch Soccer Park in Fenton, Mo. in 2008.

In addition to the venue for professional soccer, the development would include nine youth soccer fields. The youth soccer fields are a key component of the development plan and a major generator of activity - and indirectly revenue, according to Paul Mann, community development/TIF director for the city of Collinsville.

"With youth soccer you can have year-round users who will be utilizing services in the area," said Mann. "They're looking at nine youth sports fields that will be laid out throughout this development and utilized as green space, greenways and malls."

Another part of the development plan is to hold concerts in the stadium, consistent with the operations of other MLS stadiums around the country.

"If you go all the way back to the Mississippi River Music Festival, concerts by famous performers were here at one point," Berg said. "But, since then, the Metro East has had to go over to St. Louis to see music. I think this will be a good opportunity to have concerts, probably six to eight large concerts a year here."

Mann has been working with Cooper and Berg on the project for more than a year now. He said that part of the reason the project has expanded beyond the stadium and fields is to generate the tax base to support the costs of infrastructure and more. Mann said the stadium will be privately owned - the city of Collinsville will not own it - but that the city will consider supporting the project through tax increment financing. Whether that will be done through the expansion of an existing district or the creation of a new one has not yet been determined.

Mann said that the city is working on an agreement with the developers, and he expects to be able to complete that agreement over the summer. Cooper said the goal is to play the 2009 MLS schedule in the new stadium in Collinsville.

vice president/coo: Alan J. Ortbals
email: aortbals@ibjonline.com

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