Explanation
BACKGROUND: The City of Columbus entered into a Jobs Growth Incentive Agreement (hereinafter “Agreement”) with The Kroger Co., (also referred to as the “Grantee”) effective April 18, 2013. Columbus City Council approved the Agreement by Ordinance 0201-2013, adopted February 4, 2013, and granted a financial incentive based on an amount equal to twenty-five percent (25%) of the new Columbus withholding tax paid by the new employees located at the project site, to commence on January 1, 2014 for a period of five (5) consecutive taxable years based on an investment of approximately $14.7 million to acquire, renovate and equip a vacant 35,000 (+/-) square foot commercial warehouse to relocate and expand its Columbus Central Fill Pharmacy Facility, retain 103 full-time jobs and create 23 new permanent full-time positions at the Project Site, 2270 W. Rickenbacker Parkway, Columbus, OH 43217.
In a letter from the Grantee received by the City dated March 23, 2016, the Grantee requested an amendment to their existing City of Columbus Jobs Growth Incentive. Because of a delay in the project, the Grantee was unable to submit an annual report for Report Year 2014 during the 2015 reporting cycle and so in the letter they requested that the start date of the incentive term be changed to commence on January 1, 2015 and that the retained job commitment and the associated payroll baseline amount also be changed as the information originally provided in the application were incorrect due to payroll errors.
This legislation is requested to be considered as an emergency in order to revise the incentive term start date, the retained job commitment and the associated baseline payroll amount so that there will be no delay in processing the Jobs Growth Incentive payment for Report Year 2015 during the 2016 payment cycle which is currently underway and also that future reporting and payments will be based on accurate baseline information.
FISCAL IMPACT: No funding is requ...
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