The Pataskala Corporate Park is continuing its growth spurt.
Two new warehouses are coming to Etna Parkway. Pataskala City Council members approved the warehouse plans June 17 and then OK'd 100%, 15-year tax abatements for each building July 1.
The speculative buildings are the fifth and sixth distribution-style structures built by South Carolina-based Red Rock Developments, which built the 1.1-million-square-foot building now home to solar panel manufacturer Illuminate USA, which The Advocate previously reported. Red Rock is also building a warehouse on Mink Street and two more on Etna Parkway, east of Illuminate USA. The structures are part of the 350-acre Red Chip Farms development within the city's corporate park.
Administrator Tim Hickin said Wednesday this kind of development is exactly reason for the corporate park.
"Taking advantage of this and having these type of buildings in that area is exactly what the people that created it envisioned, and so this is exactly what it's supposed to be used for," he said.
There is no known tenant for either building, Hickin said.
The warehouses at Etna Parkway and Refugee Road will each be 225,120 square feet and 46 feet high. The 43-acre site is bordered to the west by the roughly 300 acres purchased last year by Microsoft.
While Red Rock will not pay property taxes on the site, which is within Southwest Licking School District, employees there will be subject to a higher income tax than the city's 1% rate. The warehouses fall within the city's joint economic development district, which is a way to collect income tax on commercial properties within a defined area. The Advocate previously reported that employees will pay a 2.75% income tax, with 1% going to the city and the other 1.75% going to the JEDD, which was created in December 2009.
Red Rock estimates about 90 people will be employed at each building, resulting in a payroll of about $4 million, according to city documents.
Hickin said the city is forgoing property tax to collect more through income tax. He added that Pataskala gets about 6 cents on the dollar from property tax.
"It's a way to focus the income tax collections, which are more than the property tax collections," Hickin said.
That also means other entities, such as schools, will not receive their share of property taxes either. But Pataskala's JEDD revenue is divided among multiple entities, including school districts, the Licking County Commissioners, the cities of Pataskala and Newark (Pataskala's partner on the JEDD), Licking County Economic Development, West Licking Joint Fire District, Career & Technology Education Centers of Licking County and Harrison Township.
Southwest Licking and C-TEC both signed off on the abatements in June, Hickin said.
Southwest Licking also approved an agreement that states Red Rock will pay semi-annual payments collectively equal to 12% of the property tax revenue the district would have received from the site and up to $10,000 to offset the district's legal fees from negotiating the agreement, according district documents.
C-TEC approved its own agreement with Red Rock that states the developer will pay C-TEC annually part of the property tax revenue it would've received as well as up to $10,000 to offset the district's legal fees.
mdevito@gannett.com
740-607-2175
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