11-27-17 Community Investment - Laserfiche WebLink

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be able to go out and find money in other areas. This should not be postponed, especially if you don't want to lose the status we have had over forty (40) years. It should be approved tonight but amended as you move forward. I give credit to the Department of Community Investment for saving this because this would have been eliminated from the County and the City would have lost a lot of valuable assets. Committee Chair Ferlic turned the floor back to the Committee for further comment or main motions. Committeemember Smith made a motion to continue Bill No. 80-17 to the December I Vh,2017 Common Council meeting. Committeemember Davis seconded this motion which failed to reach a majority. Committeemember Randy Kelly then made a motion to send Bill No. 80-17 to the full Council with no recommendation. Committeemember Williams-Preston seconded this motion which carried unanimously by a voice vote of six (6) ayes. Bill N& 17-76-Designating Tax Abatement Petition to River Park Leasing Corporation Dan Buckenmeyer, Director of Business Development for the Department of Community Investment, with offices on the 14'h floor of the County-City Building stated, We are here to launch the revitalization of the block immediately south of this building. What used to be a fully developed downtown block is now a sea of parking, and we are looking to change that. The northeast corner of the block was home to the Hotel Jefferson for most of the 1900s. In 1979, that four(4) story structure was demolished to make way for a Hardy's, only to be demolished itself in 2000. Since then and for almost the past two (2) decades, that corner of the block has sat vacant. It is owned by the City but is generating no revenues or benefits for our citizens. We are thrilled to present an opportunity to avoid this situation happening for another decade or two (2). The Department of Community Investment is recommending the approval of a resolution to designate that corner as an economic revitalization area to aid in the revitalization of that block, and provide an assessed value deduction or tax abatement to the property in order to incent and enable this exciting and important property in question. The property in question will actually sit on the parcel that includes only the easternmost half of the lot and will maintain ownership of the western half of the lot in anticipation of incenting and activating future development. This will be the first new downtown South Bend office building or development in about twenty (20) years. It also sits on a meaningful artery between downtown and the ballpark. The proposed building includes high-end retail with four(4) floors of Class-A office space above. It would be five (5) stories and 3,800 square feet in total. He continued, When we evaluate opportunities to support economic development in the City of South Bend,the top two (2) of the many factors we look at are the levels of private investment and job creation. This building's expected $9 million price tag represents significant private investment whilst also representing significant risk. It is important to note that this is a new SPEC Building. The retail space is not contracted at this point. We are in an era of high construction costs which also increases the risk. Known and committed job creation will stem from this project. The owner has committed to creating fifteen(15)new jobs with a payroll of $750,000 per year. In addition to those jobs, we anticipate there will be significant indirect job creation resulting from the activation of ground floor retail and the other offices. We, the City, are selling the parcel to the developer for$50,000. We are thrilled to present this opportunity to the Council and hope you are equally as excited. This property has sat idle and made no 5