Project Diamond added on Consent Agenda?
(correction – resolution is resolution 14, 2015 not resolution 15, 2015 – typo)
The next City Council Meeting will be tonight Thursday, March 5th at 7pm at City Hall.
Is United Technologies on Briger tract an appropriate subject for Consent Agenda?
Resolution 14, 2015 (read it here) was added to the Consent Agenda sometime after my email on Monday. Read the Post’s article entitled Sources: Firm eyes Gardens expansion.
“United Technologies is looking to buy property on the Briger tract in Palm Beach Gardens to build a 280,000-square-foot office complex, where the Fortune 500 company plans to move a significant portion of its Carrier Air Conditioning and Otis Elevator subsidiaries into a regional headquarters, according to knowledgeable sources.
Palm Beach Gardens and Palm Beach County are poised to offer major incentives packages to secure the deal for the $115 million complex, which would employ 450 with an average minimum wage of $85,000. ”
By our calculations, approval of this resolution commits the city to over $5M over 10 years at the current combined millage rate of 5.8315 on a $115M project. That consists of property tax forgiveness of $671K per year in the first 5 years and $335K in the next 5, in addition to the direct payment of the “jobs incentive” of $630K.
But “Plans are to buy the site from Kolter Group, which owns the 681-acre Briger tract. But there’s a hitch: The Briger land is one of a number of properties zoned for biotech development in northern Palm Beach County.
A source close to the deal said he believes a technology or headquarters use is permitted on the land. But Jim Mize, the chief assistant county attorney who led the team that wrote the covenants governing the tract, said that the 100 acres now controlled by Kolter are restricted to industries “directly supportive” of biotech research. That restriction doesn’t expire until at least 2021, Mize said Wednesday. ”
The agenda (with links to full detail) can be found here. Check the agenda to see if any additional items have been added before the meeting (which certainly was the case today!)
Will be interesting to hear if anyone ask if there are known height waverers that will be needed to accommodate an elevator companies global showroom destination. What promises has our lame duck commission/administration already committed to; as they undermine the Jeb Bush Biotech Vision for North County?