LAKE OZARK, Mo. — The City of Lake Ozark wants to start up conversations with developers who see the city's growing economic potential.

That message comes across loud and clear in a Request for Information/Proposals/Qualifications the city published and began sending to developers last week. Read the request here.

In it, the city wrote, "It is evident that momentum is building toward significant growth in the hospitality, entertainment, retail and housing sectors."

The point of the request is, the city says, to open up dialogue between the city and potential developers, so developers can share their plans with city staff and the city can begin planning accordingly. "We recognize that some developers will be further along in their planning process than others. At whatever planning stage you are currently, we encourage you to respond," the city said in its request.

New City Administrator David Mitchem explained in an interview with LakeExpo, "We want to make sure the [city's] infrastructure capacity meets the need of the developer. So in that sense we want to partner with them, so we know the infrastructure needs… the other reason to partner with developers is so the process is predictable for them. For builders and developers, predictability is really important because it drives to their bottom-line profit."

Mitchem emphasized the goal was to show that the city is eager to work with developers to see economic growth. 

He said this request was triggered by a recent trend within the city: the amalgamation of properties into tracts that would be ripe for development. "When I was doing economic development… for Castle Rock, Colorado, I saw this same kind of behavior: the amalgamation of properties, followed by really explosive development," he said. "And so based on that prior experience, I felt that that’s what’s about to happen in Lake Ozark. It’s not gonna happen overnight, but I think… the next 10 to 15 years we’re going to see a lot of activity and a lot of development." He added that the national economy would obviously affect whether such development would happen: if the country went into a recession, these kinds of projects would likely be put on hold.

Mitchem said the city had certain ideal properties in mind and hoped to connect potential developers with the owners of those properties, but he was not ready to specify them in an interview until after the request deadline had passed and they had a chance to talk with developers. The request deadline is Jan. 10, 2022; the submissions will not be revealed publicly, and developers may specify confidential information.

The request outlines the seven kinds of developments the city would like to see:

1. 200-600 room hotel

2. 4-8 restaurants

3. 5-12 retail shops within and adjacent to the complex

4. 1,500 – 2,500 seat capacity event/convention center

5. Entertainment venues

6. Amphitheater

7. Workforce/Affordable Housing

A proposal could include one or multiple of those developments, the request specified. To that final point — workforce/affordable housing — Mitchem acknowledged that was an obvious need in the city. "It requires housing to make it all work," he said.

Mitchem said the city had been receiving inquiries for development in recent months, some of them following the announcement by the Osage Nation of their intent to build a casino and hotel/entertainment complex in Lake Ozark. The city has not taken a position on the Osage Nation's plans, he noted, but they did send the request to the Osage Nation as well as to other developers and owners of large properties within the city.

After the request went out last week, he said the city has already received multiple phone calls. LakeExpo spoke with one developer who said they are interested in opening up a conversation with the city, in response to the request.

"We tried to get it out to a broad spectrum of folks and we’ll see what comes in," he said.

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