Part of the public improvements connected with the NorthPointe development at a downtown Greenville gateway will be paid through a Tax Increment Financing district-type of agreement between the city and the developers.
Under the agreement given initial approval during a Greenville City Council meeting Monday night, the city will use $800,000 out of its Economic Development Capital Projects Fund to reimburse Central Realty Holdings for public roadwork, streetscape improvements, streetlights and pedestrian lights in conjunction with the project.
In addition, the city has agreed to pay Central Realty Holdings $2 million out of future property tax revenue from the property over the next 15 years.
NorthPointe is a mixed-use development at the corner of Stone Avenue, North Church Street and Wade Hampton Boulevard, across from Canal Insurance. Central Realty Holdings, which is owned by the same family that owns Canal Insurance, has been working on NorthPointe for more than two years. The 9.68-acre development is to be anchored by a Harris Teeter grocery store. It also includes multifamily housing, commercial space and a parking deck.
The agreement basically creates a TIF district that includes the site of the $45 million project. TIFs were used to pay for downtown and West End improvement projects over the last three decades.
TIF districts allowed the city to use increased tax revenue that new development in the central business district and West End would bring to finance the cost of the infrastructure needed to support that development. Over the years, the city has issued bonds to pay for taxpayer-funded improvements such as city parking garages, sewer improvements and streetscaping to coincide with private development, generating new tax revenue to pay off the bonds and fund more work in the district.
Greenville City Councilwoman Gaye Sprague said the project is important to Greenville. “As we move forward duplicating the success of downtown, we just have to have private partners,” she said. “This is a new day, making this level of commitment to the city’s corridors.”
Rece Morgan, president and CEO of Central Holdings, said he expects ground will be broken for the project in November. Roadwork will be done late in the first quarter or early in the second quarter of 2017.
