By Neil Johnson - September 26th 2022

 

JANESVILLE

The city of Janesville’s newest tax-increment district is at Center Avenue and Highway 11 on the south side—a swath of land the city hopes will at least be home to a 1.5-million-square-foot hydroponic strawberry greenhouse.


That’s no small project, and just one development that could roll out over the next several years under what could be a $31.9 million tax-incentive agreement with a Milwaukee developer Three Leaf Partners.


On Monday, the Janesville City Council voted to approve the boundaries and basic project plan for a new, 171-acre TIF district the city’s calling TIF 40.

 
Monday’s vote allows the city to move forward on further negotiations for a complex public-private development deal that plans show could include housing and hundreds of thousands of square feet of light industry on land that’s now mostly MacFarlane Pheasants, a longtime pheasant farm.


Most of the parcels in the new TIF —about 140 acres— are former town of Rock land that the city annexed earlier this year.


The plan commission earlier had given a nod to the new TIF plan as an acceptable use of the land.


TIFs are used to trap additional property value, or “tax increment” that’s then used to pay back the cost of development, but it requires developments planned to occur and to perform under the terms of a developer’s agreements.


The council on Monday approved the TIF itself as a framework through which the city could be reimbursed for the costs of development incentives and infrastructure improvements it would initially pay for to support a multi-pronged industrial park development.
 
The project, according to earlier plans, would include a smaller swath of what developers have indicated would be a mix of single family and multifamily housing, along with hiking and walking trails.


The deal would roll out over 20 years, the longest period a city can hold a parcel as active TIF land. Janesville Economic Development Director Jimsi Kuborn said the TIF would be structured as a “pay as you go” district. The city would award incentives to the developer based on individual projects.


So far, none of the development plans for the new TIF have received final city approval or public funding.

City council member Douglas Marklein on Monday night called the prospects and plans for the new TIF “transformative” for the city’s south side.


The first of Three Leaf’s development projects that could move forward, Kuborn said, likely would be the hydroponic greenhouse—a deal the city is calling “Project Ripe.”


Kuborn said the city could bring the council a TIF deal later this fall for that project, and it could break ground next year. Proposals show that the massive greenhouse complex would be a $100-million development.


Kuborn declined to speculate on whether the city was reviewing a deal that would be similar to earlier estimates, which showed an incentive package of as much as $31.9 million.

View Article Here.