Columbia's Admiral Parkway Redevelopment Area has used Tax Increment Financing (TIF) successfully to spur growth in the district, leading to more than $12,800,000 in new construction in the past eighteen months. That's the message members of the Joint Review Board--a multi-agency group that annually monitors operations of the district--heard at today's meeting.
Construction of Maverick Technologies' World Headquarters, a new branch for Reliance Bank, and the Hampton Inn account for the sizable increase in capital improvements in the district, which was cited in 1995 as "blighted" by the Columbia City Council. The value of the new CVS Pharmacy building currently under construction, was not included in this total.
Despite the national downturn in development, City staff and private real estate brokers are continuing to market available properties in the area. Several of the projects undertaken in recent years, following what many see as the successful turnaround of the district, have been funded without further participation in TIF. Property values in the area have risen much faster than overall inflation, as well.
TIF can allow financially strapped local governments to make the improvements like new roads or sewers, or provide incentives to attract new businesses or help existing businesses stay and expand, without tapping into general municipal revenues or raising taxes. Local taxing bodies make a joint investment in the redevelopment of an area with the intent that any short-term gains be reinvested and leveraged so that all the taxing bodies will receive larger financial gains in the future. The funds for this investment come from future tax revenues not otherwise expected to occur--revenues which are generated by increased public and private investment in identified, underperforming, areas.
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