Finance committee approves tax incentives for downtown businesses
Taylor Cooper, The Brunswick News, Ga.
5 min read
Jul. 26—Brunswick's finance committee recommended the city commission approve tax abatements for a wedding venue and a restaurant in the downtown area on Monday.
The first was a $49,492 property tax abatement spread over 10 years for a wedding venue being developed by Port City Partners.
The board of the Brunswick Downtown Development Authority unanimously recommended approval for the wedding venue, called Queen & Grant in applications, at a meeting earlier in the month.
The abatement would come in the form of zero property taxes for the first five years, with a shrinking reduction from 80% to 20% over the next five. After 10 years, the business would pay full property taxes.
The building's value is expected to more than double in value after the renovations are complete, said DDA Executive Director Mathew Hill.
The Village Oven, Silver Bluff Brewing, Sundance Tile and Stone and the Leotis and Kress buildings, both mixed-use commercial- residential developments, took advantage of similar tax abatements, Hill told the finance committee.
Tax abatements are a tool the city can use exclusively in enterprise zones, he said. Enterprise zones were created by the state legislature and are in place across Georgia.
Brunswick's downtown is an enterprise zone, said Hill, along with Norwich Street and the U.S. 17 corridor in the city, among others.
The goal of enterprise zones is to bring jobs to economically depressed areas and revitalize local economies. Enterprise zones have to be reviewed every 10 years to justify their continued existence, he explained.
The downtown Brunswick zone will be up for review in late 2024.
The wedding venue will span 1311 and 1315 Grant St. and include both indoor and outdoor event spaces.
Five new jobs will be created to operate the venture, the application states, along with support jobs in maintenance, upkeep, marketing and advertising.
Browning said the maximum occupancy would be 500 people.
Port City Partners is working on a non-disruptive way to park that many people, Browning said, including possibly shuttling people from off-site.
The tentative opening date is Oct. 15, according to the application.
"Mr. Piazza is covering something that is needed in the downtown corridor for us to really tap into the wedding market and the small event market," said Brunswick Mayor Cosby Johnson.
He added that it may satisfy the need the city commission saw when it planned to create a conference center in the Oglethorpe block.
The wedding venue economy is growing across the South, he said, and Brunswick should work to capture a slice of it.
"We've seen this type of growth from Charleston and Nashville down to Savannah, and we're starting to see it trickle to (St. Simons Island) ... I think we should push to bring this to our city," Johnson said.
Guests attending a wedding here could decide they want to come to Brunswick to stay, City Manager Regina McDuffie said.
"It could be one of the great catalysts of...future residents or business developments in our community," McDuffie said.
The second request is from Seed Corn Enterprises for $17,185 in property tax abatement; a waiver of all building and design permits, business license and planning and zoning fees; and reimbursement of $15,000 for architecture and engineering design fees and $8,635 for utility work in relation to a new commercial building at 1305 Gloucester St.
The building features two units, one of which will be the restaurant, Jay's Fish & Chicken, according to the application. It does not mention the occupant of the second unit.
The building is nearly complete and over $550,000 has already been invested in the project, according to the application.
McDuffie said the city had no precedent for reimbursement of development fees so she could not recommend the city go that route as a matter of procedure. She also noted the expenses for design and utility work were not charged by the city. The city has no means to waive them and therefore should not reimburse them.
The property has a great deal of historic value in that it was "a commercial hub in the African American community for decades," according to the application. It hosted two businesses mentioned in "The Negro Motorist Green Book" — a segregation-era listing of businesses in the U.S. that would serve Black patrons.
Scanned pages of the 1948 edition of the Green Book attached to the application list Kozy, a restaurant, and Green Cab, a taxi company, at 1305 Gloucester St.
"With this project, Seed Corn Enterprise endeavors to restore honor to this historic place of prominence and in the future will apply for a Georgia Historical Society marker recognizing this site ... as a stop mentioned in the Green Book dating back to the 1930s," the application reads.
Former State Court Judge Orion Douglass, one of the owners of Seed Corn Enterprise, said the city would invest in the "past, present and future" of the city's populace by approving the application.
The reason why he was asking for reimbursement of fees was because he could not file the enterprise zone request until he reached a certain point in the development approval process.
If the city reimbursed them, Douglass said the funds would be reinvested in the business, which he hopes will satisfy a need for quality fresh food in the area around the establishment.
