Catching Up with John Kimball

Maps hang on the walls of John Kimball's Pepper Street office and rolls of blue prints lay atop a metal file cabinet with drawers neatly labeled with locations like Victoria Drive.

A row of manila folders behind his desk are choc full of pending projects being handled by The Kimball Group, Inc.

Kimball, dressed casually in a light blue dress shirt one recent Tuesday morning, owns a large tract of land off Main Street with fellow developer Robert D. Scinto and another on Pepper Street.

Both properties house some of Monroe's largest companies, including Victorinox Swiss Army, whose move to town was highly publicized.

In fact, the road taking traffic from Route 25 into the office park on that side of town was named Victoria Drive in honor of the occasion.

Monroe's officials are still trying to grow its business sector to ease the tax burden on residents and Kimball, who also lives in town, is at the heart of the effort.

"We're working to get the Jewish Home for the Elderly," Kimball said with a smile. "That just came back into play. They're going to make a commitment to Monroe."

Scinto and Andrew Banoff, president and CEO of the Jewish Home, had been looking for a suitable property for an upscale nursing home for months, also considering properties in Trumbull, Easton and Stratford before focusing on Monroe early last week.

Robert Scinto Jr. confirmed Kimball's update on Wednesday saying all that's left is for the Jewish Home for the Elderly to sign off on it.

The Pepper Street business park is also rounding into shape.

"There were 300 acres," Kimball said. "We've got about 40 left — 27 out of 28 lots have been sold out of what we subdivided."

The progress has been made amid an economic recession.

"If the economy was great, we would be done," Kimball said. "The economy has been tough on a lot of families."

"The land in Monroe is reasonably priced," he added. "It allows businesses to expand without a lot of extra costs."

Kimball said both ends of town have commercial water, but neither has a city sewer system, which is the main obstacle in attracting businesses here.

However, Kimball sees signs of optimism.

"For the first time in a long time, the Monroe WPCA is working diligently on setting up a town of Monroe sewage system."

First Selectman Steve Vavrek said the formation of the Water Pollution Control Authority was a necessary first step to the town's either tapping into Trumbull or Bridgeports' system or building it's own waste water treatment plant.

Growing the tax base

"The commercial development in town far exceeds the projections we made when we started in terms of tax revenue," Kimball said. "We met about 50 percent of development and are 100 percent ahead of tax revenue projections for commercial industrial districts. It's tremendous."

How have the values of John Kimball's commercial properties translated to revenue for Monroe?

The projects he sold were worth $37,734,843 in 2009, according to Town Assessor Elizabeth Duffy.

Of that, she said $746,471 is fully taxable with a $214,116 abatement and net taxes of $532,355.

Kimball's present holdings had a total $55,483,000 value in 2009. Duffy said that translates to $109,756 in taxes.

The total 2009 value of both current and sold properties are $93,217,843, with a net of $642,111 taxes and $856,227 being fully taxable, according to Duffy's calculations.

Growing the town's economy is one of the main goals of the first selectman.

"John is doing a lot of that work on his own, bringing companies in," Vavrek said of Kimball. "He works with town departments well. He believes in Monroe and we believe in John Kimball."

Vavrek said Kimball, Bernie Sippin and George Ganim are always looking for positive ways to improve Monroe's commercial sector.

Lee Hossler, chairman of the Economic Development Commission, said Kimball has been a "stalwart citizen."

"John has been a godsend to this town," Hossler said Tuesday. "He has done so many good things for this town and continues to contribute personal time, serving on committees. He's a great philanthropist for the town."

It's not just big companies

Kimball has an Inland Wetlands Commission application to build three buildings at 34 Enterprise Drive in his Pepper Street business park.

Fox Steel and Tri-Star Concrete plans to share the space.

Kimball said a permit was already obtained for the project, but because the companies need larger buildings to meet their needs — another 50,000 square feet — the application had to be revised.

If the project is approved by Inland Wetlands and the Planning & Zoning Commission, Kimball said construction should begin in the spring.

"We're working with a company to put a recycling business in the industrial park on Pepper Street," Kimball said of another upcoming project. "We had an informal meeting with Planning & Zoning and have yet to submit the formal plans."

Kimball is proud of bringing in well-known companies like Victorinox Swiss Army, but he said, "It's not just big companies. There's a number of small companies, BML Tool, Argus Air Systems, L&L Evergreen ..."

Kimball, who has a degree in entrepreneurial studies from Babson College, becomes animated when talking about some of the success stories of the smaller businesses.

Outside his office, Kimball climbed into his Ford F350 King Ranch for a short drive to his Pepper Street business park.

"It's great to be close to my business parks and it's great to be three miles from my home," he said with a smile.

The SUV turned onto Cambridge Drive and headed up a tree-lined driveway. Kimball marveled at the natural setting.

The buildings in the business park off Route 25 are also tucked away from the main road. "Some people still ask me when Swiss Army will be built," Kimball said.

He glanced to a grassy area to the right of Cambridge Drive as he drove by. "This is the lot we're working on."

Aside from the different sizes of the companies on his properties, Kimball enjoys the variety of products and services the businesses provide.

"We actually have a German company looking to buy this building," he said of a rectangular building on a hill to his left. "They specialize in specialty meat cutting equipment."

To Kimball, the company couldn't choose a better town to move to.

"One of the things that keeps Monroe going is we have an ingrained entrepreneurial spirit," Kimball said. "We just move and create jobs. It's very exciting."

"If you're an entrepreneur, your next step isn't to come up with a business plan. It's to move to Monroe."