Explanation
BACKGROUND: Columbus City Council (COUNCIL), by Ordinance No. 3118-2016, passed December 12, 2016, authorized the City of Columbus (CITY) to enter into an Enterprise Zone Agreement (the “AGREEMENT”) with 711, LLC and Wood G.P., Ltd. (collectively, and hereinafter refer to as “ENTERPRISE”) for a tax abatement of seventy-five percent (75%) for a period of ten (10) years in consideration of company’s investment of approximately $35 million in real property improvements and the creation of seven (7) net new full-time permanent positions with an annual payroll of approximately $218,400. The investment consisted of two parts: (i) the construction of a 9-story Class A commercial office facility consisting of approximately 162,000 square feet, with an attached parking garage containing 88 parking spaces at 711 N. High Street, Columbus, Ohio, parcel number 010-031749 located in the Short North District, (ii) concurrent with the first part, ENTERPRISE proposed to construct a mixed-use facility consisting of approximately 18,465 square feet of residential apartment units, approximately 1,705 square feet of retail space and a new parking structure that consists of approximately 245 parking spaces at Lincoln Street and Pearl Alley, parcel number 010-011525. Within this second part, the tax abatement would only be applied towards the 125 parking spaces of the garage which are related to 87,000 sq. ft. of commercial office space in the first part, located within the Columbus City School District and within the Columbus Enterprise Zone, (collectively, and hereinafter both parts referred to as the “PROJECT”). The AGREEMENT was made and entered into effective March 13, 2017.
The AGREEMENT stated that construction on the improvements of the PROJECT was expected to begin no later than the end of March, 2017 and that all real property improvements were expected to be completed by the end of December 2018, and that no real property exemption was to commence after 2020 n...
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