REGULAR MEETING January 28, 2019
<br /> Olive Street and Sample Street. It is a building that has been vacant for some years. It is in a rough
<br /> and declining shape, so we are thrilled as a City to have someone come in and make a significant
<br /> investment toward both cleaning up the surrounding property and also renovating the building.
<br /> They are purchasing the building for$765,000 and they are planning to put$500,000, at least,into
<br /> renovation of the building and grounds. Their business, and I will allow them to expand on this,is
<br /> a great business model and a sustainable business model that adds value to steel seconds. I will let
<br /> them expand on that.
<br /> Mr. Buckenmeyer continued, Again, these are a few pictures of the site (referencing the
<br /> presentation). Here is the loading dock area. You can see the building is in disrepair. The door is
<br /> in need of replacement and so on.You can see the vegetation in the background that is overgrown.
<br /> It is a property in some need of attention. The hot tub will be removed as well as some other
<br /> environmental mitigation that will take place before they take ownership of the property. You can
<br /> see,then,with just few quick pictures of the interior,with the building itself there are issues. There
<br /> are issues with the roof, there are leaks, so on and so forth so it is really wonderful to get this
<br /> legacy property back into operation. In addition to the vacant building and the real property tax
<br /> phase-ins that will address these issues with the property and building, they are making a roughly
<br /> $700,000 investment in equipment that will then be housed and utilized in the facility to perform
<br /> steel activities.
<br /> Mr. Buckenmeyer went on, To summarize the entire package we've put together for Council, the
<br /> present assessed value is about $550,000. The annual taxes are about $20,000. Councilmember
<br /> Voorde asked a question this afternoon which I would like to address. You had asked about the
<br /> potential obsolescence discount. We did a little research on that property and actually,in 2013,the
<br /> landowner did file an appeal and acquired a functional obsolescence discount. So, it is notable and
<br /> jogs some of our numbers but actually makes it better for the City. In any event, the net result is
<br /> that the $20,000 per year is net of an eighteen percent (18%) discount, presently, which will
<br /> disappear as those improvements are made. They are making a private investment of over $2
<br /> million and committing to, over the next four (4) years, sixteen (16) new full-time jobs with
<br /> significant annual and individual payroll. In addition, they are going to bring four (4) jobs they
<br /> will retain that will come over from a much smaller facility they have been operating out of in
<br /> Mishawaka.
<br /> Mr. Buckenmeyer continued(referencing a slide in the presentation), So if you look in the middle
<br /> and going down is the vacant, the real, and the personal property tax amount. This gives you an
<br /> idea of what we are abating and phasing, and the results of the phase-in. We are offsetting about
<br /> $213,000 in total taxes for them in the early parts of this.They will still be paying a total of$55,000
<br /> and that will go up a little bit, over those ten (10) years. If we look at that, again, it starts to get
<br /> complicated. The different colors represent the different tax phase-ins, but you can see almost in
<br /> year five (5) and certainly in year six (6) we start seeing a return on this. If we were to take no
<br /> action and not support them, and this building remained in disrepair, we would see less than
<br /> $200,000 over the next ten (10) years. They will be paying $264,000, roughly, in taxes over the
<br /> next ten (10) years. It is a solid return on investment, it is a win-win for them to invest and for
<br /> them to see that return.
<br /> Mr. Buckenmeyer went on (referencing a slide in the presentation), I would like to show a few
<br /> quick pictures before the petitioners come up to speak. This is what it looks like today and they've
<br /> got some great renderings they've brought along. They are going do some wonderful
<br /> improvements to the streetscape along Sample Street.
<br /> David and Pam Andre, 21601 Durham Way, Bristol, IN, served as the petitioners for this bill. Mr.
<br /> Andre stated,Pam actually started Grace Steel three(3)years ago and ran it largely as a brokerage
<br /> operation. It has grown tremendously. Our largest portion of our business is taking heads and tails,
<br /> secondary steel, in sheet form. Our largest supplier is Steel Warehouse which is immediately
<br /> across the railroad tracks from this property. We transform that material into parts and, or,
<br /> distribute it once it has been cleaned up, sheered, or laser cut to usable parts. The industries we
<br /> serve are the trailer industry, some RV customers as far away as Alabama and Missouri and a lot
<br /> of customers around this area. We are excited to be in the neighborhood and are excited to take on
<br /> this opportunity and are excited to be on Sample Street. We look forward to the opportunity to
<br /> give back to the community. That is actually one(1) of the visions and that is why we started and
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