The Fall River Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Board convened its sixth meeting on February 6, 2023. The board began by unanimously approving the minutes from its September 7, 2022 meeting. The primary focus of the meeting was the review and approval of three TIF applications aimed at stimulating economic development within the city.
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um I'd like to call to order the February um or the sixth meeting of the tip board um our quality attendance yeah Sean kadim here is that they can yep Frank marcione here and joining us by Zoom uh yeah pursuant to the open meeting law any person would make an audio or video recording of this public meeting and they may transmit through any medium attendees are therefore advised that
0:32such recordings and Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived and are deemed acknowledged and permissible I think we have to do the uh to the flag
1:09I'll ask for a motion to approve the September 7th 2022 minutes moved I have a motorcycle I have a motion a second any discussion on those minutes um all in favor opposed unanimous um I guess we're gonna go right now to the uh the bank application I'm Gonna Fill Us in on that please I will um thank you uh mayor and members of the tipwad um the first application we have before
1:46you tonight is the bank five tip application as we all know Bank five has been a well-established uh institution here within the city of Fall River for over a century they've remained one of the only headquartered Banks if not the only headquartered bank here in Fall River they're also the 33rd largest bank in the state of Massachusetts what they're proposing is they're proposing a 12 million dollar expansion
2:16modernization and related equipment purchases will allow which will allow Bank five to upgrade and expand its corporate headquarters on Main Street 79 North Main Street this expansion will be taking place within one of the highest poverty level census tracts in the entire in the entire city so this type of investment of 12 million dollars I think is uh should be well accepted by the city as well as the Tiff board
2:44because you don't see these types of expansions taking place within these types of impoverished census tracts areas areas in Bank five actually deserves a lot of credit for this proposed investment that they're making here excuse me as a result of the proposed expansion uh Bank five is uh is projected to create five additional full-time job opportunities within seven years uh throughout the exists at its uh
3:15excuse me within 86 within the uh system itself and they're also going to be retaining uh jobs as part of this overall overall expansion so the recommendation that we're bringing forth today is for um one two The Seven Year Tiff um which is reflected in your uh at the end of the package you have a evaluation of a local Tiff and you can see that essentially over the 70th period uh the
3:49Exempted taxes would would reflect about 69 579 dollars uh based upon today's tax rate of 25.77 for commercial rate and the annual tax is due during this time period would be 86 329.50 once again on the um on the current tax rate we all know that this is just an estimate once the project is complete and the assessors actually have a time to go out there to review the expansion then they'll make the proper
4:25assessment but this is a best fake benefit and guess if it has to where we stand with regard to the proposed expansion and evaluation there too excuse me there are no uh personal property taxes being yeah being proposed here because obviously Banks um are also exempt from personal property taxes themselves so it's a relatively small tip in comparison to some of the other tips that you know you
4:53have before you today but as well as the tips that we've done in the past but again I think the real rationale for the improve for the acceptance and the approval of this proposed Tiff is they're demonstrated commitment to downtown Fall River uh they have vast history in serving this community for decades upon Decades of providing good service and also they're very good corporate citizen within the
5:18city contributing to many Civic events throughout the years both on the Public's behalf and at the private non-profit behalf so we do have a couple representatives from the bank today if we have some additional questions that I can't answer how many questions I'll make a motion to approve second second a motion discussion any further discussion um yes abstained I am a client in the bank and
5:52also I'm involved with Christopher economics that's okay yes one abstention passed next up is the 37 Park Street trip application who's speaking on that all right as well so before yep so before you you have a second um Tiff uh application for 37 Park Street as you may some of the people that are familiar with the city here and we'll have a long-term memory a long time memory 37 Park Street is the actual old
6:32Dominican Academy that's uh that's been um that's located on Park Street itself a Dominican Academy was provided Catholic Education to females for a number of years at that particular location uh then when the school closed the next use of the that particular property was by the Atlantis Charter School which disposed of this you know which actually moved and vacated that location
6:58when they moved into their new facility uh you know far south end the Park Street location is a 59 000 square foot facility it's been abandoned for a two-year period first Bristol cooperation plans a historic rehab of the entire 59 000 square foot building and surrounding property St Anne's Hospital would be the new tenant and shoes removal over existing administrative employees from the
7:27hospital to fill out and occupy the building um first Bristol cooperation has received approval for their proposed use for the city of Florida the zoning board of appeals the proposed 18 million dollar investment for Rehab will consistently completely rehabit the building both inside and out remediation of existing minor environmental issues uh creating an estimated 66 parking spaces and 75 plus or minus construction
7:56jobs the interesting thing about this property is it's never been on the tax roll because it's been all you know occupied and owned by either the Diocese of the church or the charter school so now this property will be coming on a tax roll and be taxed as a private development under private ownership um the other interesting aspect about it is it allows the city to to continue to
8:25create job opportunities in the city's highest growth sector employment sector that being the health care sector so as the people vacate Saint Anne's Hospital itself and they move the administrative offices over into this facility that frees up space within the hospital for more clinical use it makes it a much more attractive place for the provision of Health Care related Services as you
8:52can see in your Tif draft Tiff agreement here we are proposing a seven year Tiff again based upon the 18 million dollar investment which we're estimating may have a an assessed value of approximately three million dollars during the seven year period the actual uh now the actual amount of Exempted taxes would be two 200 247 392 and the annual paid the actual actual paid taxes would reflect uh to
9:26200 0.58 988.50 again project is in keeping with the overall development strategy to the city to create more jobs in a healthcare service area put a new building back on the tax rolls so it can be considered New Growth moving forward and it also helps get occupy the building that's been falling into disrepair as a result of its non-use for the past two years it's a historic building they'll be using
9:56historic State and tax credits for the project and I think it's a great use we do have Jamie carram here for Chris Bristol to answer any questions that I may not be able to help answer thank you motion to approve second second any further discussion on the old Dominican game yes yes uh yes yes thank you Linda you're welcome I'm sorry that's okay at last order of business but for a new business
10:39is the Lincoln School on 439 Pine Street are you handling that one also oh yeah yes okay so as you wear as you may be aware High development LLC is in a process of purchasing the former Lincoln School property located at 439 Pine Street they've been working Hyde's been working diligently with the city of Florida to repurpose the property and create 24 Market resident residential units into commercial spaces
11:07to date the project has received Zoning Board of approval from these Fall River zba they've also secured Mass historic tax credits and the approval of the ties critical and necessary to help offset and estimated six million dollars in rehab expenses for the project um you know over the past years the city of Florida has demonstrated a strong commitment to increase residential growth expand housing Alternatives and
11:34stabilize Housing Development and create and promote economic development through the provision of the creation of market rate housing although the project is not contingent upon securement of the Department of Housing and Community Development age tip program should those tax credits become available approval that ties are is a critical piece for the securement of those state tax credits
11:59as this was a tax this tie was similar uh almost identical to a previous tie that was approved years ago when it was under different ownership this tie also reflects the same types of schedules that have been approved in similar types of projects essentially it's a 10-year tie of which there's an 80 savings for the first five years on the new value would be greater than as a 20 savings on the second five year
12:29schedule of that 10-year schedule itself so there's nothing new here in terms of the types of the term or conditions of this tie agreement in comparison to other previously approved ties the only difference here is that it's under new ownership uh the city is in the process of selling the property or facilitating the sale of the property to the developer and once again this will take an abandoned
12:57um you know eyesore and you know converted into moderate housing which would also help stabilize and improve the living conditions and safety conditions within the the neighborhood the neighborhood or the neighborhood around the Pine Street School area itself we do have Ken model cone here who's going to be the developer of the property to answer any questions that I may not be able to answer
13:24motion to approve the tie a second motion a second any discussion on the time Mr Gonzales yes yes Mr Lincoln yes yes yes
13:57in the old business we have to go over hearing none how to entertain a motion to adjourn so moved second all in favor aye aye opposed thank you very much thank you everybody