Tim Ryan, tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
A new tenant is set to move into a portion of the vacant Kmart space in Shawano, provided there is some financial help from the city, but officials at a committee meeting Thursday did not disclose who the new tenant will be.
Dennis Heling, chief economic development officer of Shawano County Economic Progress Inc., told the Shawano Industrial and Commercial Development Committee that the owners of the vacant Kmart property have a tenant that will occupy a third of the 87,000 square-foot space.
The move hinges, however, on creating a new tax incremental finance district that would allow the city to provide a grant and low-interest loan.
“We are now at a point where they do want to do the renovation,” Heling said. “They’re planning on doing roughly a little over $2 million in renovations.”
Heling said there as a sense of urgency for the city to move forward, if it chooses, for the renovations to take place.
“They are anticipating starting that now, or relatively soon,” he said.
Heling said the city could provide roughly $450,000 in assistance through a potential grant and low-interest loan by creating a TIF district.
TIF districts are areas where municipalities invest in infrastructure, such as sewer and water, to attract development where it might not otherwise occur, or to make improvements, such as eliminating blight.
Whatever increase in tax revenue that results from development in those districts goes to paying back the debt the municipality incurred from making improvements to the district.
The Shawano Kmart at 1211 E. Green Bay St. closed in July 2014, laying off 55 employees. It had been in business at that location since 1989.
The store was part of the Shawano Plaza, which is owned and managed by Atlanta-based RCG Ventures, LLC, a privately funded real estate investment group that acquires and develops commercial real estate.
The proposed TIF district would cover the entire Shawano Plaza, but only new development at the plaza would go toward paying off the TIF debt.
City Administrator Brian Knapp said there would be a development agreement requiring RCG Ventures to make a payment in lieu of taxes if the development does not meet the expected increase in assessed valuation that would be needed to pay off the TIF debt.
The city already has six TIF districts.
The industrial and commercial development committee voted unanimously to recommend to the Common Council the creation of a seventh TIF district for the Shawano Plaza.