If the controversial Imperial Sugar redevelopment project ever takes place, it will happen without W.C. Perry Land Development.
In a surprise move quietly announced deep inside the City of Sugar Land’s web site on Thursday, Cherokee Investment Partners LLC, and W.C. Perry said their partnership to redevelop the old sugar refinery property has ended.
And while Perry’s involvement in the project appears to be over, Cherokee apparently will continue to have a role in the redevelopment.
In a Thursday statement, the two developers said they “have ended their partnership to redevelop the Imperial Sugar facility. The mutual decision was made upon Mr. Perry’s completion of work on the initial phase of the redevelopment project.
“The change in the partnership was viewed as a natural progression of the redevelopment,” Perry and Cherokee said. “Cherokee remains committed to working with the City in making the Imperial redevelopment a reality.”
It’s unclear what led to the developers’ split and what it means for the project. The news statement did not appear on either entity’s web site, and neither Cherokee Managing Partner John Mazzarino nor Vice President Kyndel Bennett could be reached Friday for comment.
Will Perry, CEO of W.C. Perry Land Development, also provided little explanation. “I really don’t have a comment on it,” he said Friday, when asked why his firm no longer has a role in the high-profile redevelopment.
Perry said his company’s time will be spent on “other projects we’re involved with.” As for Cherokee, he said, “as far as I’m aware” they still will work with the City of Sugar Land in proceeding with the project.
Because of the holidays, city officials were not available either. City Manager Alan Bogard was out of the office on Friday and couldn’t be reached; Economic Development Director Joe Esche didn’t return a call for comment Friday afternoon.
In the news statement on the city’s web site, Bennett said Perry “has contributed vision and hard work in helping to bring this project from its infancy to today. …We have made significant progress in the planning of the redevelopment, and we are confident that the community will be proud of this project.”
In May 2003, Imperial Sugar Co.’s landmark sugar refinery was shuttered as part of a company restructuring.
In February 2005, Cherokee Sugar Land, LP, announced it was negotiating with Imperial Sugar to buy the refinery property as part of a commercial, retail and residential project. Cherokee Sugar Land is a limited partnership that, until recently, included W.C. Perry Land Development LP; Cherokee Investment Partners LP, of Raleigh, N.C.; and general partner Verturo Sugar Land, LP.
The February announcement reverberated through Sugar Land City Council, when it was revealed that Mayor David Wallace has a business relationship with Will Perry, and had moved his offices into the same building as Perry’s.
In March, Sugar Land City Manager Bogard asked that the City Council in effect create a firewall – in the form of a development oversight committee – between Wallace and negotiations over development of the Imperial property and adjoining land.
To further persuade the public that there would be no impropriety between the tasks of serving as mayor and officing with a partner seeking assistance from the city in a real estate project, Wallace was asked by Bogard and the City Council to issue a public statement assuring he would have no involvement in the real estate project.
Wallace could not be reached for comment on Friday.
In April 2005, Imperial Sugar announced it had signed an agreement to sell its 160-acre refinery site to Cherokee Sugar Land, LP.
“The conditions to closing also include the creation of certain tax-advantaged financing districts, which require state and local approval, to provide financing for a portion of the infrastructure costs associated with the redevelopment of the site,” Imperial Sugar said in an April statement. “Additionally, Cherokee must negotiate a development agreement with the city of Sugar Land and complete the acquisition of a 640-acre tract owned by the state of Texas which is adjacent to Imperial’s site.”
Eight months later, some – but not all – of those conditions have been met. The Texas Legislature passed specialty legislation creating the “tax-advantaged” district Imperial Sugar spoke of. And in June, Cherokee Sugar Land, Cherokee Investment Partners III, LP and the City of Sugar Land signed a redevelopment agreement for the property.
But acquisition of what is known as Tract 3, which runs roughly along the east side of State Highway 6 from U.S. 90A to the Sugar Land Airport, appears to have stalled.
On Sept. 9, in a news report on the City of Sugar Land web site which was removed within the past few days, the city said: “Cherokee Investments is now working directly with the General Land Office to determine/negotiate opportunities to incorporate Tract 3 into an overall plan for the Imperial Sugar Redevelopment Project.
“No development plans have been submitted to the City of Sugar Land. As a result of this legislation and current negotiations, past assumptions on the timing of the project are on hold.”
