On the agenda for Asheville City Council Tuesday are two partnership opportunities. Following the lead of Frontier Syndicate, LLC, both involve write-your-own economic incentive proposals from Kassinger Development Group, LLC. One proposes building a park for the city. The other asks for assistance with construction costs for affordable housing. The developers are interested in TIF-like support. Like many, the developers cannot afford to complete projects. Unlike many, they expect preferential treatment from government to continue to build at taxpayer risk and expense. Proposed, for example, is a 50% tax break for five years. In addition, the developers requested the ability to have a portion of their property tax payments go toward developing the park instead of paying their proverbial fair-share for city services.
The city’s economic development director, Sam Powers, was not optimistic about council granting TIF-like assistance for the residential development. His justification was that the city had not yet worked out the details in its Transformation Development Policy, which may soon be renamed the Sustainability Incentive Grant Policy.
