The city of Austin and Hy-Vee are looking for another partner in the project to build a new grocery store at the Oak Park Mall site.

The groups behind the project requested a $250,000 loan from the county, which the county board is set to discuss at its 8:30 a.m. Thursday board meeting.

Chairman Tony Bennett said the money would be used for site preparation: retaining walls, retention ponds, the parking lot and other such things.

The money would be payed back over the course of 20 years, according to Bennett.

In October, the Austin Port Authority reached a general agreement to buy the Oak Park Mall Property for $3.3 million, thanks to a Hormel Foundation grant. Now, Hy-Vee and the city are working to finalize that deal, which would allow the company to build a 60,000- to 90,000-square-foot Hy-Vee grocery store.

Bennett called it a good project, but admitted he had mixed feelings about the county’s involvement. While the county has money set aside for economic development, the board has spent down its reserves in recent years — much of it on tax relief as part of the annual levy. Bennett and other board members have voiced concerns about the county’s reserve fund dropping any lower.

The county has history with the Oak Park Mall site, as owners Martin Graff of M H Graff & Associates Inc. and Martin Goldman of M J Goldman & Co. Ltd have faced property tax issues on the site in recent years. In June of 2013, the mall owners paid $378,170 owed on two lots a few weeks before the property was set to forfeit.

At that time, the board made plans for what to do with the property if it forfeited to the county.

Thursday’s meeting begins with a department report from Recorder Jill Cordes, followed by general business at 9:30 a.m.