Outdoors retailer REI at CityGate?

Seattle-based outdoors outfitter Recreational Equipment, Inc. — better-known as REI — could be joining Rochester's CityGate development.

According to documents filed with the City of Rochester Planning Commission, the retailer will be part of the third phase of the $200 million CityGate project. That phase will also include a four-story 90,000-square-foot mixed use residential/commercial building. REI is slated for a one-story 27,000-square-foot building on CityGate's southwestern corner along the Erie Canal.

Developers AJ Costello & Son appeared before the planning commission on Sept. 8, seeking site plan review for CityGate's Phase III.

Representatives with the company did not return phone calls seeking comment and officials from REI would not confirm a Rochester location, but renderings submitted by Costello & Sons as part of the city application clearly identify the project's Building 12 as housing an REI.

Still, Michael Ferris, a spokesman for REI said, "We are continuously looking at locations across the country to better serve our members, but have nothing to announce in your area."

REI, seller of camping, fishing, hiking, cycling, paddling, rock-climbing and other outdoors-related gear and equipment, is the nation's largest consumer cooperative. Members pay a one-time fee of $20 for a lifetime membership in the co-op, and are entitled to an annual 10 percent dividend based on eligible annual purchases, depending on company performance. The co-op has more than 5.5 million members and in 2014 had annual revenues of $2.2 billion and returned $168 million as dividend.

The company has 140 stores in 33 states, including three in the New York City area. Ferris said REI has opened stores in New Jersey and Georgia so far in 2015, and has planned openings in California, Delaware and Iowa. Last year, the company opened seven new stores in the United States.

When complete, the 45-acre CityGate development at the intersection of East Henrietta and Westfall roads, is expected to include a 150-room hotel, a 300-unit apartment complex on the Erie Canal as well as a host of retail and office space. Developers said earlier this year that nine stores were planning to join the CityGate project, but have not yet made any official announcements about which retailers those might be.

According to projections previously provided to the city, the completed development is expected to generate as much as $29 million in annual sales tax revenue and create more than 1,000 permanent jobs.

CityGate's anchor tenant, the 156,000 square-foot wholesale club Costco, opened in June and is expected to generate up to $200 million in annual sales, translating into about $16 million in sales tax revenue.

The County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency approved a custom payment-in-lieu of taxes package for the project in 2014. In that agreement, about three-quarters of CityGate's estimated $52 million in property tax payments will be redirected to repay the developer's debt over 22 years, with the county and city to get the remainder over the same time period.

The Costco project was granted $3.5 million in mortgage, sales and property tax breaks over 10 years by COMIDA.

Construction is underway on the site for a Five Star Bank branch that will be the first in the City of Rochester. That building will include free meeting space for local groups and organizations to use. That project was approved for $96,000 in sales tax incentives by COMIDA in May.

MCDERMOT@Gannett.com