Tuesday evening members of the Plymouth Plan Commission had many questions for City Attorney Sean Surrisi on a resolution to create a fifth Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) district in the city.
The new TIF District will be called the Western Avenue Economic Development Area and is being put in place solely for the new business locating in the former Del Monte facility.
Creating this new TIF allows the city to set up a bond financing incentive. The TIF District will allow the Plymouth Redevelopment Commission to capture the new tax revenues generated by Winona’s investment, which can be used as a dedicated income stream to pay off the bonds.
City Attorney Sean Surrisi said, “While setting up the bonds has significant costs with bond council and financial advisors, Winona will pay those costs up front. Over the 15 year term of the bond Winona will realize a greater incentive than the city’s traditional tax abatement could provide.”
Winona Building Products will benefit with financing improvements through participation in a bond issuance in the amount of $7,295,000.
Surrisi said that these single business TIF Districts are quite common around the State, but this will be the first one he has done in Plymouth. The attorney noted that Bremen did one a few years ago involving Universal Bearings.
Surrisi said, “In the end, the incentive made the difference in landing the company in Plymouth rather than them locating at their existing facility outside Etna Green, which has a significantly lower tax rate.”
Members of the Plymouth Plan Commission unanimously approved the resolution noting that it conforms in several ways with the City’s plan of development set out in the 2013 Comprehensive Plan.
The request to create a 5th TIF District now moves on to the Plymouth Common Council for consideration. From there it will go back to the Redevelopment Commission which will hold a public hearing on the plan at their September meeting.
