Photo provided An artist’s rendition of the Rubicon project, a planned five-story, 120-unit apartment building that would cause the demolition of a drive-thru bank at 921 Jackson St. and house with historical ties at 1008 Washington St.
COLUMBUS, Ind. — A proposed mixed-use development project at the corner of 11th and Washington streets that was just about at the planning finish-line hit an obstacle during Tuesday night’s Columbus City Council meeting but is still moving forward, city officials said.
In a stunning late development, a resolution that reflected the council’s part in creating a separate tax increment financing (TIF) district for Rubicon Development’s proposed five-story, 120-unit mixed-use development failed to pass in a 4-5 vote.
Council members voting in favor of establishing the TIF were: Frank Miller, R-District 4, Kent Anderson, R-District 5, Josh Burnett, R-at-large and Tom Dell, D-at-large.
Those who rejected the resolution include: council members Chris Bartels, R-District 1, Elaine Hilber, D-District 2, Jerone Wood, D-District 3, Jay Foyst, R-District 6, and Grace Kestler, D-at-large.
Officials intended to create the separate TIF so redevelopment could “recoup” the $6.4 million subsidy in the form of a forgivable loan the Columbus Redevelopment Commission is providing to Rubicon to make the financing of the $30.9 million project work.
Columbus City Council members approved the pro forma project agreement on second reading on Dec. 17, which included the $6.4 million contribution from redevelopment in central TIF dollars.
But the project agreement itself has yet to be signed and Rubicon won’t close on their construction loan until the summer.
The city is still moving forward, but redevelopment will have to go back and rework details of the project agreement and will now only get back $2.4 million of that $6.4 million because the current central TIF, where the project site is located, expires in 2035.
“Our intent to create the allocation area was to be able to recoup our investment in the project, and that’s best practicies utilized by redevelopment commissions all across the state of Indiana,” Director of Redevelopment Heather Pope said on Wednesday. “So it was a bit of a surprise and quite frankly, disappointing, that we are not going to be able to recoup our entire investment.”
“We’ve had a meeting with Rubcon’s team and our team this morning, they were watching and we assured them that we as a community are still very supportive of the housing project that they’re proposing,” Pope continued. “…We’re still a firm believer that this is a positive project and the ancillary benefits that we’ll get as a community outweigh us not being able to recoup the entire investment.”
Council members voting against the resolution on Tuesday night said they felt as though they weren’t properly informed that a separate TIF would be created, or that recoupment was contingent of the creation of the separate TIF, when they approved the pro forma project agreement with Rubicon back in December. They also indicated they thought they weren’t being provided requisite information from the administration, although city officials disagreed with that notion.
Members also posed various questions about TIF best practices and wondered whether they were being followed.
Council members voting in favor of the resolution said they were aware a new TIF district was being created and why, and noted it had been done with past projects.
The development would be located on three parcels at 921 Jackson St. and 1008 and 1020 Washington streets and have a 143-space parking garage and first floor commercial and tenant common space.
Studio units in the development start at $1,320 per month, one-bedroom units at $1,435 per month, two-bedrooms up to $2,167 per month and three-bedroom units up to $2,376 per month, according to Rubicon, with 10% of the units considered workforce units at a 20% rent reduction.
A separate TIF district had been created for other mixed-use developments in recent years, including The Taylor and the development at Sixth and Washington streets, in order to capture expected increasing property taxes generated in the area due to the project. Andrew Lanam, redevelopment financial advisor, said that recoupment would’ve happened in 21 years.
The boundaries of what would’ve been the 11th & Washington TIF District also included the 0.42 acre parcel at 1034 Washington St., known as the former Joe Willy’s and Overstreet Home.
Rubicon had previously presented plans for a potential restaurant in the location as late as June during the site development plan approval process, but were asked to remove that material by planning staff because it wasn’t part of the mixed-use development. The parcel at 1034 Washington St. is currently owned by the Columbus Capital Foundation.
The life of a TIF is 25 years. Redevelopment sought to create a new TIF because the current central TIF will expire in 10 years, therefore adding the mixed-use development project area and 1034 Washington to the existing TIF would mean redevelopment wouldn’t fully recapture that $6.4 million.
As the matter as made it’s way through the city government process in the past year it had been steadily waved through at various points, although not without a fair share of pushback from community members living in the downtown, but also a handful of council members who questioned specifics about the development itself, including its price-point and look, and the $6.4 million in redevelopment funding the city is providing.
This story will be updated.
