Agency OKs creation of tax district around mall
The next step involves the formal approval of the redevelopment plan.
The next step toward a potential overhaul of the Mount Berry mall was taken Tuesday when the Rome Redevelopment Agency approved the establishment of a new Tax Allocation District which includes nine parcels at and around the mall.
When a Tax Allocation District is created, property values for tax purposes are set at a base level. As properties within the district are developed and increase in value, the amount of property tax above the baseline is returned to the owner to help offset development costs for a specific number of years.
The proposed district includes nine-parcels, 156.6 acres including the mall and property around the Rome Tennis Center at Berry College.
Attorney William Richardson said the next steps will include a public hearing before the city commission within 60 days to adopt a redevelopment plan, followed by a formal vote of the city commission to actually adopt the plan.
The plan itself is a 40plus page document that has been development by the Bleakly Advisory Group, an outside consultant which also worked on a potential redevelopment plan for the Northwest Georgia Regional Hospital property in West Rome.
The Hull Property
Group, owners of Mount Berry mall, have been seeking a TAD district to facilitate redevelopment of the mall property. Hull is seeking to demolish most of the Sear’s wing of the mall, extend a road through the mall property to meet up with the tennis center and development of six out-parcels on the northern end of the mall.
HPG will have to separately come back to the city and Floyd County to actually seek creation of the financing plan at some point in 2018. The mall owners plan to invest more than $8.6 million to implement the first phase of the TAD District redevelopment plan. More than $800,000 is earmarked for demolition, almost $380,000 is ticketed for exterior façade work, almost a million for the extension of the road, more than six million for out-parcel development and more than $400,000 for fees and contingencies.
The second phase of the overall redevelopment
plan includes hotel and commercial development adjacent to the tennis center.
The plan projects a total of more than $3.8 million incremental increase on property taxes on the real estate alone over 20 years.
Redevelopment Agency member Ryan Earnest, president of Heritage First Bank, asked about how existing conditions around the mall substantially impair the growth of the community, one of four criteria for the property to be eligible for TAD creation.
“Just in my mind I think we’re looking at tenant’s rates, rental rates, you look at some of these vacant parcels that I know have been on the market for a number of years,” Rich said.
“This isn’t a silver bullet; it’s not going to solve all the evils. It’s simply a tool that will help us make this area stable, and hopefully make it redevelop into something nicer than what it is,” said City Manager Sammy Rich.