City Looks To Expand Gatke TIF District, Lobby For Tech Park
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David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
A TIF District may be enlarged and a technology park lobbying group will receive some money after city action Monday.
City Planner Jeremy Skinner presented a resolution to the Warsaw Redevelopment Commission to amend the boundaries of the Winona Interurban Redevelopment Area and its allocation area. The resolution also amends the redevelopment plan for the area.
“We are looking to expand the Gatke TIF district,” he said.
Commission President Tim Meyer asked what the primary purpose of the expansion was.
“The primary purpose is ... there are some state statutes that allow you to do what they call riverfront liquor licenses. We have a riverfront district on Center Lake. And there is a restaurant in this area that would like to take advantage of that same process. In order to do that, there ... six ways to qualify for a riverfront district,” Skinner said.
He said only one of those six ways pertains to the area and the only way to do it is to expand the TIF district so it becomes an economic development area. Then it would become eligible for the city to create a riverfront district, which would then make the restaurant eligible for a liquor license.
The process for the TIF district expansion is that the Redevelopment Commission creates the TIF district, then it becomes an economic development area, and then it goes before the city council for a resolution to create the riverfront district. That information would be available for the restaurant to have and file for a liquor license.
“Whether or not the (Alcoholic Beverage) board gives them a liquor license is out of our hands,” Skinner said.
He then said there’s more than one thing going on with the Gatke TIF district.
“We also have the Arnolt property, which we’re probably going to take possession of sometime early next year. We’ve been working with (Michiana Area Council Of Governments) for the last two years on EPA grants for environmental assessment and potential cleanup funds in the future,” Skinner said.
MACOG was awarded that grant money earlier this year and is in the process of going through the request for qualifications (RFQs) to select a consultant to do the work. Once MACOG selects a consultant, Skinner said Warsaw would be eligible to apply to them for grant money to do assessments on the city’s brownfields, of which one is the Arnolt property on Durbin Street.
By including the Arnolt property into the TIF expansion, he said it will allow the city to try similar potential projects with the Arnolt property that it has with the Gatke property.
“There’s a lot of other obvious projects in this area we could pursue, but that’s a couple of them,” Skinner said.
The commission approved the resolution, with an amendment that it state the city is acquiring the Arnolt property and is subject to city council approval. The Warsaw Plan Commission approved the resolution at its meeting Monday night.
The last action the Redevelopment Commission took at its meeting Monday was to give up to $4,000 to a certified technology park (CTP) lobbying group for the next eight months. In June or July, the commission will review what’s been achieved by the group to determine if they want to support the state lobbyists further.
A letter and information about what the lobbying group wants and is trying to accomplish came from Muncie Innovation Connector Inc. and Northeast Indiana Innovation Center.
Skinner told the commission that CTPs are set up with a cap to receive $5 million.
“It’s not necessarily a cap per year. So initially when they created the certified technology parks, they made it available to you a maximum of $5 million and if it took you 20 years to get through that $5 million, then it took you 20 years. But you have to recertify the technology park and it’s changed a little bit. I think originally it was four years, then it went to three years and I think it’s back to four years now,” he said.
Over the years, Skinner said there’s been a CTP group that has lobbied the state legislature on behalf of CTPs to continue to make them successful.
“One of the aspects of the technology park is that you go out and create an incubator and accelerator – something that is basically supporting economic growth within your community,” Skinner said.
With it being capped at $5 million, once that milestone is reached there’s no more revenue for the CTP. The CTP lobbying group has been talking to lawmakers over the last five years to attempt to amend some of the CTP laws to create an ongoing funding for the CTPs so incubators and accelerators have an ongoing funding source, Skinner explained.
He said the lobbying group wants to put the cap on the amount of revenue CTPs receive annually. The group has been trying to get half a million.
“What they’ve been trying to change is, once you reach your $5 million cap, then every year after that you only get half a million, but you still get half a million to continue to run your tech park, incubators and accelerators you may have in a technology park,” Skinner said.
He said the state legislature did modify the current rules to allow an additional $100,000 per year once the $5 million cap is reached, but they also made it so the additional $100,000 had to be earned.
The lobbying group is seeking about $27,000 from all 23 CTPs in the state. The support each CTP gives to the group is dependent on how many CTPs give, but Warsaw is only the seventh to support the lobbying efforts. Not knowing how many CTPs were going to sign on, the Warsaw Redevelopment Commission voted to give $4,000.
Mayor Joe Thallemer told the board, “I really want to thank you for considering the tech park lobby fees.”
He said the tech parks were established by former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and Warsaw’s tech park is a newer one compared to others in the state.
“We don’t have the longevity that some of these tech parks that are at the end of their $5 million cap and now they’re really pushing this legislation,” Thallemer said. “I think for us it’s going to be a good thing because to be able to do sustainable projects that we’re talking about – the medical device accelerator – we certainly want to make that commitment.”
Skinner estimated Warsaw’s CTP won’t reach the $5 million mark for another five to six years.
Thallemer said he thought the lobbying group will make some progress this year but probably won’t be finished.
“The tech park (increment) has been a really great resource for us,” he said.
