By Travis Gettys
Enquirer contributor

CRESCENT SPRINGS - A plan to build a retail and office complex took two steps forward this week, after taking a step back last week.

Developer Bear Creek Capital expects to close on the property by the end of the month after City Council voted 4-2 Monday to issue $56 million in industrial revenue bonds. Council also voted unanimously to appeal a judge's ruling that Crescent Springs officials violated their own zoning ordinance in approving Buttermilk Towne Center.

Kenton Circuit Judge Douglas Stephens last week declared the plan invalid because, he said, Crescent Springs City Council failed to approve the stage I development plan within the required 45 days. City Council overrode area planners' recommendation to disapprove the plan through a municipal order, which requires only one vote, instead of an ordinance, which requires two.

Despite the legal uncertainty, the project should be completed in time for a planned July 2005 grand opening, said Steve Kelly, Bear Creek's director of development.

Developers are studying infrastructure issues, Kelly said, and construction could begin in October with landscaping and paving added in the spring. Councilmen Nick Berry and Jim Collett, who voted against issuing the bonds, remain skeptical that the project will be completed on time.

"That seems pretty ambitious," Berry said.

The 325,000-square-foot shopping center is about 50 percent leased, with Remke's supermarket and Rhodes Furniture already signed on, and the rest is expected to be leased by the end of the year, Kelly said.

Residents forced to move from Crest Mobile Home Park to make way for Buttermilk Towne Center could see their $1,500 payout checks soon after Bear Creek closes on the property.