By a 7-1 vote, the Winston-Salem City Council approved financial aid for a proposed $53 million mixed-use development near BB&T Ballpark:
The $53 million investment by Brand would create a project bringing in about $300,000 in annual tax revenue to the city, although that money and more will be needed to make the payments on a parking deck the city would build to bring in the Brand investment.
The city contribution in the form of a 510-space parking deck would be built by Brand and sold to the city for $8.3 million. The city would finance the purchase at a 4 percent interest rate over 20 years, with the city making about $610,000 in annual payments over that period.
Because the annual payments are more than the annual tax revenue from the project, parking deck revenue plus a contribution from Forsyth County would be needed to make the project work.
That pretty much says it all—question now is what happens if county commissioners vote not to support the project? For what it’s worth, two council members —D.D. Adams and Jeff McIntosh “pointed to the city’s big investments downtown and suggested that it may be time for the city to stop priming the pump and let developers pay full cost.”
Adams said the “pump is running dry,” but it seems to me it never runs dry at any level of government.
