The Community Redevelopment Authority has unanimously approved a contract with Dewick Investments, LLC, for a $765,000 tax increment note to assist in constructing the Canteen Commons project.
The CRA held its fourth meeting of the year Thursday morning, reviewing TIF contracts for the Canteen Commons housing housing project, and for the Sustainable Beef packing plant.
This Canteen Commons contract differs slightly from regular TIF contracts in terms of timing. TIF attorney Mike Bacon of Gothenburg said a start date for tax collection is written in TIF contracts. However, since the developer, Charlie Burwick, is still in the process of finalizing plans, specifications, and contracts, the TIF redevelopment contract includes a provision to push the start date back to 2025 if construction does not begin this year.
Bacon noted that such provisions are standard for residential projects. When asked about the end date in the contract, Bacon stated that the end date would be 20 years after the start date.
The property, which is at Second and Chestnut, has been declared extremely blighted. The extremely blighted designation extends the life of the TIF bond to 20 years, instead of a 15-year life for property designated as blighted.
The square block is near the middle of town. At one time, 30 years or more ago, there were several houses there. Now there are two homes on the east side of the block and over the years, trees have grown on the area, several of which have been cut down.
Sustainable Beef
Due to an unspecified conflict of interest, CRA Chairman Greg Wilke recused himself from presiding over the meeting during the next two agenda items, both of which were related to Sustainable Beef.
Since Vice-chairman Joe Staroska was absent, Don Lucas presided over them instead.
An amended redevelopment contract states that the division of taxes will start Jan. 1, 2024. The assessed value in 2023 was approximately $300,000, while the valuation increases to around $49 million for 2024.
The original contract allowed Sustainable Beef to sell its TIF bond and use the cash for construction. However, the lender decided to issue a bond for $21.5 million, with an endorsement of the eligible expenses on the back of the bond, following the usual route for TIF projects.
Wilke returned to the chair and removed an amendment to Midwest Land Development, LLC redevelopment plan from the agenda. That property is south of E. Philip Ave., as well as the city’s industrial park.
Before the meeting was adjourned, Lucas announcing that his term would end in a few days and someone else would take his seat on the CRA. He said he had been a member of the CRA since its inception in 1999, and it was his final meeting.
(The brief historical information about the Canteen Commons block has been updated. Our thanks to Dave Britton and Kevin McGahan for additional information.)
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It’s funny that you say that the block of land proposed for Canteen Commons has never been fully developed as there were houses on that property when I was younger.
When was that Dave, and where? Besides the two houses on the east side of the block, we didn’t see any signs of buildings on the block.
That block used to be full of houses. All around the parimeter of the block. Can remember it from the 50’s and 60’s.
I’ve heard from three readers now, and talked to a woman who grew up in a house on that block. There were several homes on the block. She thought the house where she grew up was torn down in 1990 or 91. She said the house was very old and it had a basement that must have been filled in. Another reader thought that residents were told to move out, maybe for a downtown related development that never materialized. It’s an intriguing bit of history. We’d like to learn more about it.
I was hoping this would come back up, that block was full of houses and some time in the early eighties realtors started buying up the houses and tearing them down for some development that was going to go in there but the economy took a down turn and it stopped never to change. I watched a beautiful two story house across from the old Knights of Columbus Hall being torn down stick by stick and the wood saved because there was nothing wrong with the house. I always thought it was so sad that people were displaced for no reason.