Council gives go-ahead to TIF projects

As far as Tammy Robinson is concerned, Monday night’s City Council meeting was just about perfect.
“Anytime we can bring three TIFs to the council, it shows we have a lot of stuff going on,” the New Hampton Economic Development Department director said. “It’s exciting, and I think it shows we are definitely moving in the right direction.”
TIF, of course, is tax-increment financing, which allows the city to provide incentives to new and expanding businesses. Basically, it allows the city to capture the “new taxes” from a property to help businesses and industries expand.
And although the paperwork wasn’t quite complete, which meant City Council members couldn’t approve the TIFs for Hacker Nelson and Company, Edward Jones and New Hampton Transfer and Storage, they did give the go-ahead to all three businesses to begin work on their projects.
Once the TIF is approved, Hacker Nelson will receive an estimated $56,000 over the next 10 years to remodel the old Tom’s Pharmacy building on Main Street.
The accounting firm, Robinson said, plans to gut the inside of the building and redo part of the building’s facade before moving into the building “some time after tax season.”
Robinson said Hacker Nelson’s move provides two wins for the city.
First, it brings traffic to the downtown area, and second, the company has said it plans on expanding and hiring several associates.

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“People might say but it’s not retail,” Robinson said, “but at the same time, if you don’t have retail downtown, what you want is a business that brings traffic. And everyone needs to do their taxes. … And their plan is that they’re going to be bringing in some young associates, and when we can get young people moving to town, that’s another win.”
 
For more of this article, see Friday's Tribune.