If all goes as planned, a Super Target will open at 40th Street and Yankee Hill Road in July 2007.

The174,000-square-foot store would be part of Yankee Ridge Commercial Center, a 224,000-square-foot retail development on the northwest corner of 40th and Yankee Hill, said Special Projects Manager Steve Henrichsen. An application was submitted Thursday afternoon to the Lincoln-Lancaster County Planning Commission for the center.

Brad Hillhouse, who lives nearby, said that was what the developer and a Target representative told neighbors at an informational meeting Wednesday night at Horizon Community Church.

“They had pictures showing a Super Target,” Hillhouse said, “It was pretty well cut and dried.”

A person who answered the phone Thursday at the law offices of Seacrest and Kalkowski, which is representing the developer, said the firm would have no comment.

But a letter sent by the firm last week to neighbors and City Council members said The Desco Group of St. Louis plans a Super Target on the site. It would be Lincoln’s third Target store, but its first Super Target.

A site plan for the development shows five buildings in addition to the Super Target — two are labeled as fast-food restaurants, one as a bank, one retail with a small restaurant attached and one commercial.

City Councilman Dan Marvin, who attended the meeting Wednesday, said the project could create concerns similar to a proposed development at 84th and Adams streets.

Mayor Coleen Seng threatened to veto that development because it included a 230,000-square-foot  Wal-Mart Supercenter, which Seng said was too big for a neighborhood center. The city and the developer eventually compromised on 175,000 square feet for the anchor store — a move that some council members said was made to shut out Wal-Mart and entice Target.

So far, neither Wal-Mart nor Target has announced plans to build at 84th and Adams.

The 40th and Yankee Hill site is also designated as a neighborhood center, Marvin said.

“It’s clearly very similar,” he said.

 Marvin and Hillhouse both said the developers denied specifically sizing the store to meet the 175,000 limit negotiated at 84th and Adams.

Henrichsen said the developer would not need a zoning change to accommodate the plan, but it would need a use permit, which would have to be approved by both the Planning Commission and City Council.

He said a public hearing on the development would be tentatively scheduled for April 26.

Hillhouse said he likes Target and shops there, but is a little disappointed that it is going in right next door to his neighborhood. He said he and many of his neighbors were told the land would be an office park.

Thomas Carrico, the Target representative who attended Wednesday night’s meeting, declined to comment, directing calls to the company’s corporate communications office, which did not return a phone message.

A message left with the Desco Group also was not returned.

This is the second Lincoln development proposed in the past year by the group. The firm made a bid last April to redevelop the north side of 48th and O streets, but the city chose a different proposal.

Desco’s Web site describes it as the largest retail property manager in the St. Louis area. It also has developed several large shopping centers across the Midwest.

Reach Matt Olberding at 473-2647 or molberding@journalstar.com.

Target stores in Lincoln

A developer has proposed a 174,000-square-foot Super Target  at 40th Street and Yankee Hill Road. The current stores:

Target, 333 N. 48th St.; 112,873 square feet

Target, 5330 S. 56th St.; 95,303 square feet