TYLER — It's been talked about for months, a developer from China eyeing land in East Texas for a complex housing both shopping and educational facilities.
While he had high hopes for the project, it doesn't look like it will be happening anytime soon.
During a Tyler Planning and Zoning meeting today, plans to move forward with the development were shut down, for now.
Here's what it boils down to: the city planning and zoning commission did its homework and said the development would cost the city $7.7 million in a deficit to the budget over the next five years.
The developer and his American representative, Bryan Rossman with Adams Engineering, said that isn't the case.
"I want to explain to you the motivation of the developer," Rossman said. "It is education, it has always been education."
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Xing Tan is a businessman from China who wants to build the complex in Tyler that would include places to shop and educate.
The land he's looking at is at the corner of Earl Campbell Parkway and Loop 323.
The plan was introduced to the city in January, but since then it hasn't gotten very far.
Adams Engineering was asked last month to complete their own financial analysis and bring it to the commission today, but that didn't happen.
"The study is not complete, as it takes several weeks to complete a review and then issue a final report," Rossman said. "The study could not have been completed by today's meeting with you all, we're sorry, but it just could not be."
Adams Engineering is an Austin based firm, working to be Tan's boots on the ground in the U.S.
They're providing him with information on the planning and zoning process in Tyler, while working to figure out just how much it will cost to get the development up.
The original proposal called for 6,000 housing units, now the developer is dropping that down to 3,000.
The plan calls for building a charter or private school by 2020, along with a new shopping center.
"We're not here because we have a special interest in this project, we're here representing our client who lives on the other side of the world," Rossman said.
Even with such grand plan, there has not been a lot of support for the project.
The city said it just doesn't have enough information to approve the development, citing potential costs to taxpayers in the long run.
While the project was tabled, that doesn't mean this is the last we'll hear about it.
If the commission eventually does approve the development, it will take up to seven years to be finished.