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Hutton asks court to rule on FD retail plan

Crossroads Mall owner’s attorney to file motion to dismiss

By JOE SUTTER

jsutter@messengernews.net

The company seeking to build a new shopping center where the former Sears store now stands at Crossroads Mall has asked the district court to weigh in on whether its plans can move forward.

Owners of the Crossroads Mall have claimed the plans go against a cross-easement agreement dating back to 1963, and the company wants the court to rule that this is not the case, according to documents filed Nov. 2 in Webster County District Court.

Hutton Growth LLC, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Blessing Enterprises LLC, of Missouri, filed a petition against Crossroads Mall 1999 LLC., seeking a declaratory judgment from the court.

Hutton has proposed a new shopping center on the former Sears site, which is owned by Blessing.

Although the old Sears store appears to be an integral part of the mall, it is a separate property with a different owner.

Neven Mulholland, a Fort Dodge attorney representing the mall’s owner, said he plans to file a motion to dismiss the case today.

The Crossroads Mall is owned by J. Herzog & Sons Inc., of Denver, Colorado. This group was not named in the suit.

The former Sears store at 307 S. 25th St. opened in 1964 and closed in January 2016.

The cross-easement agreement between the Blessing Enterprises property and Crossroads Mall details “various obligations owed by each property owner to the other related to parking and traffic across the two parcels for the mutual benefit of the two parcels,” wrote attorney Deborah Tharnish, of the Davis Brown Law Firm, Des Moines, on behalf of Hutton and Blessing.

Although Crossroads contends that Hutton’s proposed development is contrary to the terms of the easement, these objections are unfounded, Tharnish said.

“Defendant Crossroads’ unfounded objections have delayed Hutton’s planned development of the property,” she said.

Hutton and Blessing seek a declaration from the court that Hutton’s plans are in compliance with the cross-easement agreement.

The agreement states the parties desire, for their mutual benefit, to operate the two tracts of land “as a single, integrated commercial development.”

It requires that neither landowner will build any “building, fence or other obstruction” between the two properties, “and the invitees of each of the parties hereto shall be permitted to go freely across the boundary line between the parking lot areas of said two tracts.”

In October, the Fort Dodge City Council voted to rezone the former Sears site, and agreed to give up public ownership of a driveway leading into the mall area from Fifth Avenue South, important steps in allowing Hutton’s plan to move forward.

J. Herzog & Sons opposes the project on the grounds that it would cut off Crossroads Mall from Fifth Avenue South and hamper efforts to redevelop the mall.

“The Hutton plan will work against the viability of the Crossroads Mall,” Mulholland told the council in October.

The plan, according to Mulholland, does not create an “integrated shopping complex.”

“JHS is not opposed to a new retail development at this site and believes that it is in the mall’s and the city’s best interest that the property be redeveloped,” J. Herzog & Sons said in a press release Oct. 6. “We are specifically against the proposed plan because it is not being developed as a single, integrated shopping center.”

Hutton has proposed demolishing the old Sears store and replacing it with a 74,300-square-foot building housing eight stores. It would face Fifth Avenue South.

The company also proposes to build a 7,800-square-foot building closer to Fifth Avenue South that would house a restaurant and four stores.

What businesses would occupy the new buildings has not been revealed by the company.

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