Industrial park land pricing

Published 3:34 pm Tuesday, April 14, 2009

By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
An industrial park land "matrix" Dowagiac City Council adopted Monday night starts with a price of $15,000 an acre and, depending on the number of jobs created, building construction and amount of investment, can be substantially reduced.
The incentive formula is modeled after the tax abatement incentive program the council adopted several months ago, according to City Manager Kevin Anderson.
The $15,000 cost per acre is based upon comparison with similar industrial properties throughout Michigan.
During the negotiation process for sale of land in the industrial park, information needed to fill out the form would be completed by city staff, so the form becomes part of the purchase agreement.
Over the past six months, City Council has reviewed a series of economic development policies with the goal of aggressively seeking job creation, economic expansion and tax base development for Dowagiac.
During this time, new policies regarding tax abatements, brownfield redevelopment incentives and industrial park land use controls have been adopted. The economic development policy for review April 13 was pricing of land in the city's industrial park.
"Is this common?" asked Mayor Pro Tem Wayne Comstock of Second Ward.
"In some form," Anderson answered.
"Most every place has deeply discounted industrial prices. If you go along I-94 from Detroit to here, you see billboards saying 'free land.' Giving it away creates an absence of value. This at least places a value on the business that's coming in and its worth to the community in terms of its job creation."
"What about existing businesses out there? Is this retroactive?" Comstock continued.
"No, this is an incentive going forward," Anderson said. "I'll make the motion we go with that," moved Second Ward Councilman Bob Schuur. "If they build a $2 million building, they're going to get the land for free. I think that's almost wonderful."