The Greenwood City Council is considering giving sweeter tax breaks to developers who make improvements to their downtown buildings.
Brantley Snipes, executive director of Main Street Greenwood Inc., presented a revised tax-abatement plan to the council Tuesday.
The proposal will likely be voted on at the Feb. 18 council meeting.
The four-year tax-abatement proposal was first advanced in November by Main Street Greenwood, a nonprofit organization that promotes downtown.
“This is round two,” Snipes said, “What we’re trying to do is ... help incentivize development in the historic downtown district of Greenwood.”
The proposed tax break would cover all local ad valorem taxes except school taxes.
Since it was proposed, the plan has been reviewed by Leflore County Chancery Clerk Sam Abraham and Leflore County Tax Assessor Leroy Ware.
Initially, the proposal offered a a 100 percent abatement on improvements for the first year and 25 percent for each year thereafter. The revised proposal would provide 100 percent abatement for the first three years and 50 percent for the fourth year.
Developers could qualify for one more year of tax abatement if their building is fully occupied with viable businesses by the end of the fourth year.
To be eligible for the tax breaks, a developer’s renovations would have to account for at least 45 percent of the building’s new appraised value, as determined by the Leflore County tax assessor.
Snipes said the proposal would give developers a third layer of tax abatement after similar federal and state tax abatement programs are included.
The proposal also includes downtown residential properties.
For residential properties, a building’s second or subsequent story must be converted to residential use.
Again, an additional year of tax abatement would be granted if the building is fully leased at the end of the fourth year, Snipes said.
The proposal is similar to tax abatement programs already in place in Vicksburg, Cleveland, Natchez, Oxford and Ocean Springs, Snipes said.
In other business, the council approved:
- Accepting the bid of Double S Inc. of Grenada for rehabilitation of the Cotton Street pumping station. The bid for the work is $84,000. Eddie Curry, supervisor of the city’s wastewater treatment plant, said the renovations will help to lessen complaints of sewage odor at the station, located near the Leflore County Courthouse. Work on the project should begin soon, he said.
- Transfering ownership and operation of a sewer line to the East Leflore Water and Sewer District. The sewer line, which will have to be moved due to the planned widening of U.S. 49, serves the Long Acres Subdivision. Curry said it would cost the city more than $100,000 to relocate the line.
- Contact Bob Darden at 581-7239 or bdarden@
gwcommonwealth.com.
