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. 

Under the consent agenda at Monday’s council meeting — meaning there’s no public or councilor comment on it — is money for the city and developer to split the costs of a study on a possible partnership. The study would weigh “whether a potential public/private partnership is necessary for Onyx’s proposed development project to be economically viable, as well as if said potential partnership might be in the best interests of the City,” a city report states. The city’s half for that study is $6,250.

City Council would later use the results to help decide if it supports a partnership with Onyx. 

Catherine McLaughlin can be reached at cmclaughlin@cmonitor.com