PEORIA — Would the implementation of a business development district at Glen Hollow Shopping Center be a move of “business friendliness” by the city or a form of “corporate welfare” given to a retail location seeking help.
Those were the questions posed by Peoria City Council on Tuesday night as councilmembers began debating the merits of creating a third business development district in the city, this one potentially located at the Glen Hollow Shopping Center, 5001 N. Big Hollow Road.
The owners of the shopping center, which is home to Target, Lowe’s and T.J. Maxx, among others, asked the city to consider creating a business development district which in theory could help spur development and business attraction.
Proponents of a new business development district, which include councilmembers Zach Oyler and Tim Riggenbach, believe it would signal “business friendliness” and also make the city more competitive with other municipalities.
Oyler cited Best Buy, which used to be located at Glen Hollow Shopping Center, as an example of how competition in the business space can impact Peoria. Best Buy left Peoria earlier this year and moved to East Peoria’s Levee District, which is a business development district.
“It doesn’t matter how we philosophically believe this should go, the reality is these retailers want the incentives and they’re not going to come to the community that doesn’t offer them,” Oyler said. “I want to be at the table, I want to compete and we have to have these discussions if we’re going to do that.”
Peoria has business development districts downtown and at Keller Station. Communities like East Peoria and Peoria Heights have deployed business development districts in places like the Levee District and near Prospect Road as a means to attract businesses.
Riggenbach told the Journal Star that it is important to remember that the City Council does have the ability to determine and put restrictions on what a developer can use money for in the terms of any agreement.
“If we want to see improvements to the sidewalks or the landscaping, we can specify that,” Riggenbach said. “They will be targeted expenditures based on what the city allows.”
Opponents of the business development district, councilmembers Alex Carmona and John Kelly, worried that this kind of deal would be akin to “corporate welfare” or a “bailout” that would come in the form of a tax on consumers.
The way money is raised in a business development district is in the form of an extra sales tax. In this case, it would be an extra sales tax not to exceed 1%.
“To me this is unfortunate, to me this is going to set a precedent that I am not really looking forward to,” Carmona said. “As I read this agenda item the word that keeps popping into my head is ‘bailout.'”
Carmona had specific concerns with some of the provisions the property owners requested, including the ability to use the dollars to redevelop existing properties, meet the needs of commercial retail tenants and to acquire property.
Carmona said those are all things the property owners should already be doing.
“To me it brings up the philosophical question of ‘is it proper to impose a tax on citizens so that a developer can acquire more property?'” Carmona said. “I am sorry but to me that is an easy answer of ‘no.'”
Kelly felt that these types of expenses should come out of the developers own pockets by way of borrowing or raising rents, for example.
“Going after the taxpayer relieves them (the developer) of all of those things and they get what they want,” Kelly said.
Kelly added that retail, like the stores at Glen Hollow Shopping Center, “follow wealth creation” and he said Peoria is not doing enough in that department.
“The reason we don’t have shopping, the reason our population is dropping is because we are not creating wealth at the top end, that’s harder, that’s much harder,” Kelly said. “To me, we need to work on that more.”
The council made no final decisions about the business development district on Tuesday night. The only item before council regarding the district was a motion to set a public hearing about it on Sept. 23. That motion was approved 9-2, with Carmona and Kelly voting no.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: ‘Business friendly’ or ‘corporate welfare’? Peoria debates new business district
Reporting by JJ Bullock, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
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