City expecting 3 new TAD requests
Developers may seek the financial assistance for two retail projects and an apartment complex.
Rome City Commissioners are expecting requests for as many as three new Tax Allocation District financing plans for new developments.
TADs are areas where, instead of going into the general fund, the increase in property tax because of new construction can be allocated to the developers to offset their cost.
They are currently in place for the RiverWalk shopping center off Riverside Parkway and the Courtyard by Marriott hotel going up on West Third Street. Both are in a large redevelopment area created in December of 2005 to encourage revitalization and growth.
City Manager Sammy Rich said Friday that three more are in the pipeline.
Two are in the existing redevelopment area — R.H. Ledbetter Properties’ planned CityCenter shopping center on Riverside Parkway and a 124unit apartment complex adjacent to State Mutual Stadium that will be a partnership between Ledbetter and Charles Williams REIC.
Hull Property Group, owners of Mount Berry Mall, also have inquired about the creation of a new district that would include the mall on U.S. 27 North, as well as the new Rome Tennis Center at Berry College and nearby properties. New development could include retail and residential uses.
Rich told commissioners that consultant Ken Bleakly — who worked on the redevelopment plan for the Northwest Georgia Regional Hospital property — has agreed to write a plan for the new district. The city would pay half the $15,000 fee and Hull Properties Group would pick up the other half.
“If somebody’s looking to bring a Kohl’s, a Target, a new Super Wal-Mart, a new IMAX theater — those developers are also interested in incentives that could be in the form of a TAD,” Rich said.
He said the city’s philosophy in supporting TAD financed developments reflects a willingness to forego net new revenue for a certain period of time, reinvesting the money to make a project viable.
“It’s a catalyst for economic development,” Rich said.
Commissioner Bill Collins said the impending TAD requests would be a good test of what the community was willing to do to promote growth.
“It is going to be a test for us to figure out how much we really do want to do business in Rome and Floyd County,” Collins said. “Those types of investments don’t just pop up every day or every week.”
When a TAD financing plan is approved, a timeframe is set for how long the property tax increases would be funneled back into the project. At the end of that time, the property would be taxed at full value.
For the Courtyard by Marriott, Duke Hospitality will get $2.5 million over 12 years to help offset construction costs. Ledbetter Properties, developers of the RiverWalk shopping center, will end
up with approximately $570,000 over 15 years for that project.
Rich said that since the first TAD district was created, Rome has raked in $209,200 in taxes above the original baseline amount.
At the same time, the city has spent $103,423 for improvements within the TAD district. That includes a hotel feasibility study for the West Third Street corridor, geotechnical studies at the Marriott site, turn lane improvements at the intersection of West Third Street and Second Avenue, and reconfiguration of the Barron Stadium parking lot.
A number of developments have taken place inside the district that did not take advantage of TAD financing, notably River City Bank on West Third Street and the Charles Hight Square shopping center at Turner McCall Boulevard and North Fifth Avenue.