02-23-09 Common Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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REGULAR MEETING FEBRUARY 23, 2009 advantage of those monies for a longer period of time, so that they would generate interest that then could be used to supplement the paving program in the City of South Bend, year after year after year. That is why that when ever they can, the look to replenish dollars in the Major Moves fund so that they can maintain the principle in that fund and to continue to generate interest that helps to support on-going paving program in the City of South Bend. Don Inks stated that he wanted to clear up a few questions. The first being the price of the property and hear comments about bailing out Holladay, and this is in no way a bail out for Holladay. Over a year ago this property became available on the real estate market by the owner. Mr. Inks stated that it was listed at $280,000. He stated that he spoke to Holladay and the City had an interest in buying this as right-of-way for the Auten Connector, the City was not in a position to act on it, the property was in the County, not in the city, not in the TIF area, and the City did not have a way of acquiring the property. He stated that after talking to Holladay they agreed to buy the property and agreed to have it annexed into the city, and agreed to expand the TIF area to bring the property into the TIF area and use TIF to acquire this parcel from Holladay not to exceed $300,000. That $300,000 price was a combination of the $280,000 or the actual price that they paid for the property, plus any additional acquisition costs, whether that was title or survey or any appraisals that might have been done, and he believes that there was a small interest amount in there as part of the holding costs as well. But in no event were those cost to exceed $300,000 to the City. This is not a case of Holladay going out and buying property and coming back to the City and saying you need to buy this from us. This is a case that the City and Holladay agreeing that they wanted to buy this right-of- way, and Holladay facilitating that transaction because the City could not and now the City if coming forward trying to complete the transaction that they anticipated over a year ago. Regarding the taxes on the property, that is assuming that the assessed value was the same as the sale price of approximately $280,000 at 1% the taxes on an annual basis might be $2,800. In this case, he hopes that as part of the right-of-way, when the eventual Auten Road connector is done it will be part of a $300 million dollar investment in Portage Prairie that will be generating significantly more than the $2,800 dollars that this property was paying. The comments regarding inner city development versus development in Blackthorn, he stated that for some time now the City’s policy has been to develop inside the inner City as well as at the fringe of the City and both of those are necessary. Inner City development can be very expensive, if you take a look at the Studebaker Corridor Buildings that the City has been demolishing, they will spend millions of dollars reclaiming those inner city properties for new development. He stated that when the AJ Wright building was being built in the inner City, a great project for the inner city, they now have 470 jobs at that location, but it was a costly project. There were a number of other businesses that were brought and relocated to make that happen in the inner city. It is necessary for the City to have green space at the fringe for development. Schaefer Gear was mentioned as a business that moved out of the city and moved into Blackthorn. It wasn’t just a case of Schaefer Gear deciding that they wanted green space and nice hedges and to get out of the inner city, it was a case of Schaefer Gear expanding twice at their location in the inner city, until they just out grew it and were land locked and needed to expand again, and had a choice of locating within the City of South Bend on the fringe in Blackthorn or moving to another location in Illinois where they owned another business. Fortunately, this community has the foresight to develop Blackthorn and create alternatives for businesses that need to expand. To create opportunities for new businesses that want to come to this community. He stated that he doesn’t think that the City has anything to be sorry for doing, these were all things that were in the best interest of the City and significant growth has occurred in the Blackthorn area. That is one of the reason’s that the Airport TIF has as much money as it does to proceed with project in the inner city like LaSalle Square and moving on to Studebaker Corridor and taking care of some of those issues there as well. Not to mention other development opportunities that are coming along with the MIND stuff and the University of Notre Dame certified Tech Park, Innovation Park, Ignition Park, all of these are connected, all are important to the future of the City. He stated that it is projects like this and the foresight here that goes into getting those things done. 10