City hopes to spark investment in blighted areas
♦ The North Broad Street corridor is expected to get special attention.
City officials are looking at ways to beautify and draw interest to some of the more struggling areas in Rome, specifically the North Broad Street corridor.
The main southbound entrance to the city, it has been in a state of decline for some time now and blight has taken over many parts of it.
“I feel like it needs some help, it needs a little bit of love,” City Commissioner Jim Bojo said.
By attracting some businesses to the area, Bojo said, they could develop it more and improve the area overall.
City Commissioner and Redevelopment Committee chair Wendy Davis said they have tools at their disposal to make the possibility become a reality.
Specifically, they believe the area would highly benefit from creating a tax allocation district to encourage development.
A TAD is a specific area where the local government will provide tax assistance to certain developments, upon request and approval. Rome currently has four designated TADS.
Bojo explained that returning the increase in property tax due to improvements — for a specified period of time — encourages developments that would bring in other business and new tax revenue, such as sales tax.
By setting up a TAD in North Rome, it could generate interest for businesses to come in and create investments such as a housing complex or a shopping center.
“One of the ways we want to use the TAD is to say ‘Here’s a part of town where we need to see a development’,” Davis said. The hope, essentially, is targeted development.
In past years, TADS were created for potential developments when an investor approached the local government. By creating a TAD in North Rome, Davis believes this will be a way for the committee to be “proactive rather than reactive.”
Another useful tool that many businesses might not be aware of is that much of Rome along Maple Avenue through Shorter Avenue to North Division Street is a Federal Opportunity Zone.
That differs from a TAD in that these are areas designated by the Internal Revenue Service to spur growth in areas that are struggling financially. The areas have to be nominated by the state and certified by the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury to be designated as a Federal Opportunity Zone.
Under certain conditions, new investments could qualify for preferential tax treatment, such as temporary capital gains tax deferral.
Davis explained that not many people are aware of the zones and the city is hoping to promote them.
According to City Manager Sammy Rich, the Redevelopment Committee is now looking at starting a campaign to advertise their Federal Opportunity Zone and draw interest to the struggling areas in West and East Rome.