Explanation
BACKGROUND:
The purpose of this ordinance is to authorize the Director of the Department of Development to execute documents to allow the City to accept title to a portion of the property known as the Grange site located in the Brewery District of Columbus and to transfer the property back to Grange for the purpose of creating a Tax Increment Finance (TIF) district under Ohio Revised Code (ORC) section 5709.41.
Grange Mutual Casualty Company ("Grange") needs to expand its corporate and administrative facilities to handle planned growth of 800 people over the next 20 years. Grange is considering sites in Central Ohio, including a site at its corporate headquarters, 650 S. Front Street (the "Columbus Site"), and a site in Appleton, Wisconsin. The Columbus Site requires the Construction of a 1,000 space structured parking garage at a cost of between $19,400,000 and $22,700,000. Structured parking is not required at any other site. Consequently, the cost of building at the Columbus Site will be approximately $20,000,000 higher than the other alternatives. In order to make the Columbus Site attractive, the City of Columbus ("Columbus") and the State of Ohio ("Ohio") need to provide appropriate economic development incentives.
The project (the "Project") will consist of: 1) a new approximately 200,000 square foot office building costing between $39,100,000 and $45,100,000; 2) a 1,000 car parking garage costing between $19,400,000 and $22,700,000; 3) the remodeling of the current office building costing between $3,000,000 and $4,000,000 and 4) the construction of $3.5 million of public infrastructure improvements.
The Project will permit Grange to employee 800 new Columbus employees at the Columbus Site over the next 20 years and assure the retention of 775 full-time and 36 part-time employees. The new jobs, including benefits, will average $100,000 per annum. The project will result in retention of $60,414,000 of payroll for the employe...
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