AGENDA 3-01-2016

No bid in spite of state code and city ordinance, tax abatement to shield Main Street, what else is new.

It has to be done though. Forbes is coming back downtown to revise their previous ranking of 'dying' to a strong 'buy.'

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I believe it would cost City Hall about $500,000 to demo the Studio 

In review, what a nice income tax write-off for the former owners of a derelict movie theater who donated this dinosaur to the city for $1.00.  And, what an ongoing financial albatross for the city.  Does anyone know of affordable asbestos abatement and demolition contractors?

Tell me if I am wrong here....
3(?) parcels previously purchased by taxpayers for $200,000+ gifted + tax abatement to employ how many people just to sell alcohol?
If so--can't fault the guy for grabbing this deal

Do Buck's, At the Square and/or any other existing similar businesses receive tax abatements? Canal House? So--every other liquor establishment will now compete with the above deal? Shouldn't existing businesses(of all types) ask for and expect similar treatment?

I assume this means that the Studio/Strand won't be coming down after all? Didn't we allocate funds for it's demo long ago?

And this type of dealing + our recent academic scoring is going to change the minds of the people at Forbes?

So--help me out--what part of this methodology am I failing to grasp?

New Council/school board members??

They don't even care how obvious their shady dealings are like moving the hope house out of downtown to tytus avenue? Just did a property search and it looks like Hope House owns all the land plus some on the corner of Byron and Tytus where the factory burnt down a few years ago. How did Hope House that didn't have enough cash to pay their utility bills last time I heard all of a sudden make several land purchases? Hmm I wonder.

MJ:
Middletown distillery seeks 10-year, 100 percent tax break

By Mike Rutledge
Staff Writer
MIDDLETOWN —
On the same night Middletown City Council will consider selling the property at 1316 Vail Ave. and two others to Liberty Spirits LLC for $1, City Manager Doug Adkins will recommend the council give the startup micro-distillery a 100 percent tax abatement for 10 years.

Liberty Spirits is owned by real-estate owner/broker Mike Robinette, a former Middletown city economic development and planning employee, who plans to produce vodka, gin and moonshine, plus aged bourbon and whiskey, at the micro-distillery.

“Liberty Spirits is a start-up business in an emerging industry which is highly competitive. In order for Liberty Spirits to succeed, controllable cost must be kept to a minimum,” Robinette wrote as explanation for the 10-year, 100 percent tax abatement request, according to the application he filed in September:

According to the application, Liberty Spirits plans to spend $35,000 acquiring the 4,000-square-foot building at 1357 Central Ave. — two properties away from the 4,000-square-foot city-owned structure he plans to buy from Middletown for $1 and renovate. The firm estimates it will spend $50,000 renovating the buildings at Vail and Central, spend $150,000 on machinery and equipment, $35,000 on furniture and fixtures, and another $30,000 on inventory, according to its application for tax breaks.

The city in 2010 spent $90,000 in local money to buy the property at 1316 Vail, which is in disrepair, from a custom-cabinetry company. At one point, the city planned to raze the building. Middletown also spent $215,000 in federal funds to buy and raze buildings on two adjacent vacant properties that are part of the proposed $1 sale.

Under the proposed sale to Liberty Spirits, if the Vail Avenue project is not completed by Dec. 31, the company will be in default of the agreement, and the city can give the company notice that the property will revert to city government within 60 days if work isn’t finished, Adkins has told council members. The real estate cannot be transferred to anyone else before the project is developed.

The company estimated it would have four part-time employees in the year after the project’s completion, with an annual payroll of $80,000.

Middletown City Council in 2015 approved tax abatements for two projects that have been put into effect: A 10-year, 75 percent break for NTE Energy’s $645 million power plant near Cincinnati-Dayton and Oxford State roads; and a 15-year, 100 percent break for AK Steel’s $36 million Research and Innovation Center.

Council also approved two other tax abatements for projects that have not come to fruition.

A big wad of taxpayers' dough given away in the form of free real estate and tax abatements...in exchange for WHAT???

3 or 4 PART-TIME jobs!!!

BRILLIANT!!!         

Are these tax abatements for both property and income tax or property tax? No wonder Doug Adkins makes so much money. Its hard to put together complex deals giving hundreds of thousands away for nothing, and then getting no tax. Only an MBA from Wharton would think of such a brilliant plan.   

Maybe Vivian Moon, Spiderjohn or Mike Presta will invest some of their money in downtown.
Don't hold your breath.

City paying sham owners creating sham LLC's to shield Main Street. Open for Business through giveaways. Illogical and wasteful. Tear buildings down.  

fair enough middielover

so--why would city pay $200,000 for the properties mentioned in that condition?

4 jobs @ $20,000 per annum won't move the needle much, will it?

u want me to invest down there?
what r u going to give me?
why should I pay?
no one else does
if that area had to start and survive on their own dime, little would be there--it is all opm!

Middielover

I don’t know why you can’t understand that taxpayers DO NOT want City Hall to give away their tax dollars to start up businesses of their friends in the downtown area.
We have been told for several years now that MMF was going to ask for investment money from local movers and shakers to help fund these new businesses. What happened to that great plan?
If MMF doesn’t think these are great solid business investment then why should taxpayer’s dollars be used for startup investments?
If you want to open a business in the DOWNTOWN DREAM...gamble with own money.