RV dealership seeks tax breaks to build Newtown showroom
NEWTOWN — A family-owned RV dealership from Vermont wants to build its next showroom and service center for recreational vehicles on a vacant former warehouse site in the southern part of town if leaders agree to a seven-year tax break package.
Country Camper, a 25year-old company trying to expand its reach in Connecticut, plans to invest $7 million to buy a 23-acre site and build a camper showroom and maintenance facility that could open as soon as next year.
In return for the investment, which would include at least 15 jobs once construction is complete, the dealership wants to take advantage of the town’s business incentive program, which would save the owners $67,000 in taxes annually over the life of the deal.
The deal already has the support of three key town boards.
“Country Camper has choices for locating and investing in this project well beyond the borders of Newtown,” said Wes
Thompson, chairman of Newtown’s Economic Development Commission, in a letter to First Selectman Dan Rosenthal. “The decision to choose Newtown is dependent on our relative competitiveness to other towns from an overall tax and incentive basis.”
Rosenthal and his colleagues on the Board of Selectmen agreed, voting to approve the seven-year tax abatement deal. Last week, the town’s Board of
Finance signed off on the incentive package, leaving the final approval up to the Legislative Council, which could vote as soon as its Wednesday night meeting.
The deal is in the town’s interest, leaders said, because it would trade an abandoned site that collects $43,000 in annual taxes for a new business that collects $106,000 annually in taxes for the first seven years, and $173,000 in taxes after that.
“Spinoff economic benefits are expected to include use of other services in town and increased revenue for existing retail businesses,” Thompson said. “They are a destination that is expected to draw potential buyers from at least a 100-mile radius, who will visit and discover other places in town.”
Because of Newtown’s location, the deal makes sense for Country Camper, which in addition two Vermont locations has a sales and service center in New Hampshire. The company aims to reach buyers in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York and New
Jersey from its Connecticut location, members of the family-owned business said.
Logan Gregoire told members of Newtown’s Economic Development Commission during a virtual meeting on March 10 that he and his father Layne had “heard great things about the town, and appreciated meeting with the first selectman,” and that they “will be investing in the town, and ask that the town invests in them.”
Should the Legislative Council follow the lead of the Economic Development
Commission, the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Finance, Country Camper would make an offer on the $2 million property at
201 S. Main St., and apply to the Planning and Zoning Commission for permission to build a 31,000square-foot facility.
In that event, it would mean new life for the former site of the GeorgiaPacific distribution center, which was taken over by Blue Linx Corp. in 2004 and has been abandoned for 10 years.
Country Camper added that it is not concerned about the economic slowdown caused by the yearlong coronavirus crisis.
The reason: The company survived similarly difficult times during the Great Recession 2008, and RVs have become increasingly popular ways to escape the lockdowns of COVID-19.
Layne Gregoire told Newtown leaders in early March that Country Camper is “unique in the products (we) carry and people travel far distances to seek out (our) brand.”