Explanation
Background: Half Baked Holdings, LLC (the “Developer”) is redeveloping the former Kroger Bakery site at 427-515 Cleveland Avenue on Franklin County Parcel No. 010-015761 (the “Site”) into a mixed-use development consisting of an approximately 75,000 square-foot wellness club; 350 multi-family residential units; a parking garage containing 401 parking spaces; and an urban green space (collectively, the “Project”). Pursuant to Ordinance No. 0508-2021 passed on March 8, 2021 by City Council, the City entered the southern manufacturing building on a portion of the Site onto the Columbus Register of Historic Properties; that portion of the Site is also the former Ford Motor Company Branch Assembly Plant. City Council further passed Ordinance No. 3097-2015 on December 14, 2015 that declared improvements to certain parcels of real property to be a public purpose, established a non-school tax increment financing area pursuant to R.C. Section 5709.40(B) in the vicinity of the Milo-Grogan neighborhood (the “Milo-Grogan TIF”),and required the property owners within the Milo-Grogan TIF to make service payments in lieu of taxes for the same amounts as their property taxes as if the improvements to their parcels had not been exempted. The non-school portion of those service payments in lieu of taxes paid to the City for deposit into the public improvement tax increment equivalent fund (the “Milo-Grogan TIF Service Payments” ) are to be used to finance public infrastructure improvements benefiting the parcels in the Milo-Grogan TIF. Ordinance No. 1988-2023 passed by City Council on July 24, 2023 expanded the Milo-Grogan TIF to include the Site and additional parcels. To further support the preservation of the now vacant, historical Site, and to repurpose it for the Project, City Council passed Ordinance No. 2093-2023 on July 31, 2023 to authorize the City to enter into the TIF Agreement dated September 8, 2023 (the “Prior TIF Agreement”) with the Developer, and to ...
Click here for full text