EDSR INFORMATION #1 11-13-2012 - Laserfiche WebLink

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10/25/12 Finance&Commerce>Print>The great property tax free-for-all forgivable loans, but only a handful tied job creation to loan forgiveness. In most cases, finishing the building project and occupying the structure was enough to keep the money. When it came to spending the $35.9 million in property taxes, local officials argue that flexibility was more important. "Had the legislation mandated too many details, it would have tied our hands getting it done," said Bill Short, clerk and treasurer in White Bear Township, which used the program to give a $466,000 grant for Tecnetics Industries' new $3 million, 30,000-square-foot headquarters and plant at 1201 N. Birch Lake Blvd. With a lease in White Bear Lake unexpectedly expiring in the spring, Tecnetics last year was considering moving its headquarters and fewer than 50 jobs, many of which pay close to $100,000 a year, to Australia, company CEO John Madgett said. "If that money had not been available, there was no deal," Madgett said. Some local officials also pointed out that the money was local property tax revenue, so it made more sense for accountability to be at the local level. "This was really our money," said Regina Harris, Bloomington's Housing and Redevelopment Authority administrator. "I just take the jobs bill for what it was, which was please go out there and create jobs, and they didn't say how many." Bloomington used $1.05 million as part of a larger subsidy for the $40 million Genesee Apartments and Townhomes project. The complex is not affordable housing, but Harris says the recently completed project still brought more housing options to the city. Targeted development V Stories-high mounds of dirt have been rising up from the prairie near office buildings at the Target Northern ` <_ Campus at Highways 169 and 610 in Brooklyn Park. -y�, I Construction workers under Ryan Cos. US have been - digging down before constructing a $32.5 million, 325,000-square-foot office tower, the first of two planned at the campus. Brooklyn Park is using TIF funds as a grant „, < , reimbursing Target for$2.5 million in construction Target's cut of T 1 100 i costs for the office building project — a move the city's Economic Development Authority unanimously agreed $335 million of $35.9 million to in December 2011. r Project re:• Pie— offic R Target was already familiar with this funding I mechanism. Only months before, in July 2011, the t'S ' F i tr Inver Grove Heights City Council voted 3-2 to indirectly provide Target with $1.25 million. The money went to j Description: the Argenta Hills retail development off Amana Trail, which includes a $15 million, 135,000-square-foot ' Target store that opened in July. I afi , = i Some in Inver Grove Heights wondered why Target, a company with $2.93 billion in profits and $69.87 billion in sales in its most recent fiscal year, needed $1.25 _..,.,..__.._..___.. .........______._ million for a store project. Target already had a West St. Paul SuperTarget, on South Robert Street, a 10-minute drive from the Amana Trail location. Local resident Dian Piekarski, who spoke out against the Inver Grove Heights City Council awarding the money last year, still thinks it was a bad idea for a city of around 34,000 residents. "I don't need a Target five miles closer than what we already have. Why are they getting a gift?" Piekarski said. "Local government has gotten involved in picking winners and losers." Piekarski suspects the 135,000-square-foot store would have been built anyway because Target had already spent millions of dollars to acquire land off Amana Trail from the developer. finance-commerce.com/wp-content/plugins/tdc-s ociable-toolbar/wp-print.php?p=52262 3/8