City Council Approves 17 Tax Abatement Continuations
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Warsaw Community Economic Development Director Jeremy Skinner presented a list of tax abatement continuations for the Common Council to consider approving Monday night, which they unanimously did.
The tax abatements were for:
• Tecomet, 486 W. CR 350N.
Symmetry Medical USA Inc./Tecomet was granted a 10-year tax abatement on personal and real property in July 2015. Symmetry medical spent around $8.8 million in personal and real property improvements. They had estimated adding 107 jobs and currently have not added any new employees since filing in 2015. It is in its eighth year.
• Instrumental Machine & Development Inc./TBS LLC, 2098 N. Pound Drive.
IMD was granted a tax abatement in 2019 for real and personal property improvements. They have spent around $1.2 million in personal property improvements and have spent $2.9 million on real property improvements. The abatement is in its fourth year.
• Little Crow Lofts LLC, 201 S. Detroit St.
Little Crow Lofts spent roughly $8.4 million to rehabilitate the former Little Crow manufacturing facility into an affordable housing apartment building. It’s in its sixth year.
• 802 Center LP, senior housing.
802 Center LP spent about $13.7 million to construct a new 72-unit senior housing facility. The project has been completed and is in the process of being leased out to new tenants.
Skinner recommended the 10-year tax abatement be approved.
• BTC Investments LLC, 133 Enterprise Drive.
The building expansion was 12,000 square feet and currently houses ServeIT. The project value was $525,000. The abatement is in its third year.
• Flexaust Company Inc. has a number of tax abatements, going back to 2011.
“The big thing to understand is they made the personal and real property investments that they said they would,” Skinner said. From 2013 to 2017, Flexaust added about 243 employees, “which far exceeds the amount they estimated.”
The first abatement was for their location at 1510 Armstrong Road.
They have spent about $1.251 million in personal property since filing the statement of benefits form in 2011. It’s in its 10th year.
For their location at 602 Leiter Drive, they spent about $650,000 since filing the statement of benefits form in 2011. The abatement is in its 10th year.
For their locations at 1605 W. Center St., 1510 Armstrong Road, 602 Leiter Drive, the city council approved personal property tax abatements in 2013 for Flexaust’s expansion projects. It is in its eighth year.
Finally, for their locations at 602 Leiter Drive, 1605 W. Center St. and 1510 Armstrong Road, the council approved real personal property tax abatements in 2017 for Flexaust’s expansion projects. It is in its fifth year.
“For all of those, they made the investment and they hired the employees that they indicated they would,” Skinner said.
• Wishbone Medical LLC, 100 Capital Drive.
Wishbone has spent $106,000 to refurbish the existing facility and hired an additional 66 employees since applying for the vacant building tax abatement in 2020. The abatement is in its second year.
• AJM LLC, 3350 Lake City Highway.
This was the Rural King investment. AJM has spent $1.4 million to refurbish the existing facility. It is in its first year of a three-year vacant building tax abatement.
• West Hill Development LLC (Patrick Industries), 1445 Polk Drive.
West Hill has completed the shell building, which consists of just over 60,000 square feet and a construction cost of $4.485 million. Patrick Industries hired 165 employees.
It is in its eighth year.
• West Hill Development LLC (Patrick Industries), 1445 Polk Drive.
Patrick Industries completed their expansion of their existing operations on the property by an additional 64,000 square feet. The proposed project roughly doubled the existing facility and cost about $4.9 million.
It is in its fourth year of abatement.
• Banner Medical Innovations Inc., 1295 Polk Drive.
Banner Medical spent over $4 million in personal property and have hired 40 new employees since starting production in late 2016. It’s in its seventh year.
• West Hill Development LLC (Banner Medical, 2015), 1295 Polk Drive.
West Hill spent about $5.143 million in real property improvements since filing the statement of benefits form in 2015. Banner Medical estimated adding 78 new employees over the next five years and have added 40.
It’s in its seventh year.
• West Hill Investment Group LLC (Nextremity, which is now Medartis), 1195 Polk Drive.
The building is approximately 55,000 square feet with an estimated cost of $8.3 million. It’s in its fourth year.
• 2525 LP, 2525 Durbin St., former Arnolt property.
The development consists of 60 affordable family apartment units, with an estimated construction cost of $8.7 million. Construction of the new facilities are expected to be complete this fall.
It is in its first year of abatement.
Before the tax abatements, Skinner presented a resolution for the expansion of the northern and southern residental tax increment finance districts, which the council also unanimously approved.
The Warsaw School Board previously approved the resolution, and the Warsaw Redevelopment Commission will be asked to give the final approval.
Skinner said the expansion process started back in November.
The resolution adds in Park Ridge to the southern residential TIF district, but adds land and takes out some for the northern district.
