Story, photo courtesy of Steve Nash – Special Contributor to BrownwoodNews.com

EARLY – Early City Council members approved an $800,000 sales tax rebate over a 10-year period to the Victoria Retail Group, the Austin-based owner of the Heartland Mall, to help fund mall improvements.

The sales tax rebate comes through a Chapter 380 agreement between the City of Early, the Early Municipal Development District and the Victoria Retail Group.

A Chapter 380 in Texas is an economic development tool authorized by the Texas Local Government Code, and it allows municipalities to offer loans, grants, or city services to businesses to promote local economic development, the Texas state comptroller’s website states.

“We’re looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of a $2 million to $5 million improvement to the mall, so (the Victoria Retail Group) is getting a small portion of that rebated back to him,” Early City Administrator Tony Aaron said.

“We think you’re going to see new signage. You’re going to see new front façade — just doing what we can to turn the mall into a shopping center, and this will help him attract other retailers to come to the mall as well.”

Aaron said the planned improvements are “absolutely” good news for Heartland Mall.

“Essentially a lot of malls around the nation are dying,” Aaron said. “It’s hard to get people interested, so with the revitalization, with the storefronts, where people are walking right into the store instead of going into the mall, there’s some good likelihood that we can attract good tenants..

“Overall the mall has had its successes and failures for the City of Early since the 1980s. It was a big success, and then you’ve seen that kind of trend the opposite direction, and so that is a very key component to the City of Early. It’s 250,000 square feet of leasable space with a field of parking, so we’ve got to do what we can to work with this mall owner, to partner with them, to revitalize that and improve it so it’s more attractive to retailers.”

Aaron said sales tax rebate agreement is related to Mayor Bob Mangrum’s announcement at Mangrum’s State of the City address on April 17, when Mangrum said the mall is “getting ready to be transformed.”

Mangrum said he couldn’t go into details at that time. A slide in Mangrum’s presentation stated the mall will be transformed to the Heartland Shopping Center.