Steeplegate Developer Asks City to Consider Partnership to Help Pay for Project Infrastructure

The developer looking to transform the Steeplegate Mall into new stores and hundreds of housing units is asking the city for a hand.

When projects in Concord are built that require new city resources — adding new or improving existing roads, sewers, plumbing or other infrastructure — the city typically requires developers to pay for those additions.

Onyx Partners, who bought the former Steeplegate Mall and Regal Cinemas properties on Loudon Road for more than $22 million last year, has told the city that it may not be able to afford those costs, according to a city report.

Therefore, the developer is asking the city to help pay via a public-private partnership. The development plans would put around 600 units of housing above small retail on the Heights and include several large-scale stores including Costco and Whole Foods.

The city is already paying more than $20 million for major sewer and water improvements in that area, needed both to support existing housing as well as any further development, according to City Manager Tom Aspell.

But the scale of the project means additional improvements on top of what the city is already doing.