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B.J. Alan abatement plan sparks debate
The proposed tax abatement would save the company $125,000 to $150,000 annually.
POLAND — The chairman of the Beaver Township trustees and other residents of that township voiced their opposition to a proposed tax abatement for a fireworks warehouse off Calla Road.
“Don’t start this snowball in Beaver Township. There’s no way to stop it,” said Ted Lyda, chairman of the township trustees.
Beaver Township has experienced “solid growth” and has never offered a tax abatement, he said. To offer one now would start an uncontrolled “chain reaction’’ of “me-too” requests from other large businesses, Lyda added.
Lyda and others spoke at a Thursday meeting of the Mahoning County Commissioners at Poland Township Hall.
Although Lyda said the company would be a good neighbor, he added the township would be unable to levy an income tax to offset the revenue it would forgo because of the property tax abatement.
To grant the 50 percent, 10-year real estate tax abatement sought by B. J. Alan Fireworks Co. for its proposed Calla Road warehouse would place an unfair burden on the 4,500 households and businesses that pay their share of taxes to support local schools and township services, Lyda said.
“How can I ask 4,500 households and businesses for a tax renewal or a levy when we just give up 1 mill” or its equivalent for the fireworks warehouse? he asked.
B.J. Alan proposes an $18 million, 360,000-square-foot warehouse in what would become Crown Industrial Park off Calla Road between Market Street and Woodworth Road. The company said the new facility would create 40 jobs, retain six that are at risk and maintain 232 more jobs.
Pamela Simmons of Calla Road said she is opposed to the warehouse and abatement because the facility would generate excessive traffic, based on the company’s estimate of 2,000 tractor-trailer truck visits to the warehouse annually. “It’s right in my front yard. It’s seven acres under roof,” she said.
William Weimer, B.J Alan’s vice president, who did not attend the meeting, said in a telephone interview the land where the proposed warehouse would be built has been zoned industrial for a long time. If B. J. Alan doesn’t build there, another warehouse could be built there, he added.
Construction could start on the B.J. Alan warehouse in 90 to 120 days after the fireworks company gets the tax abatement, Weimer said.
Commissioner John McNally said the commissioners recently received the formal tax abatement proposal from the fireworks company. “I still want to look at their official request to see what they would like to do,” McNally said, without committing himself on the subject.
Without elaborating on his reasoning, Commissioner Anthony Traficanti repeated his opposition to the abatement, which he said he expressed at a meeting of a Beaver Township senior citizens group earlier this year.
Commissioner David Ludt said Tom Presby, manager of business assistance projects for the Regional Chamber, will explain and clarify the abatement proposal when Presby addresses the commissioners before they vote on it.
“I’m a business person. I believe in it,” Ludt said of the proposal. “They can put it there regardless. Whether they get a tax abatement or not, that location has been authorized for them to go ahead and build that building.”
The 55-acre plot slated to become the industrial park generates only $8,000 in annual real estate taxes today, Weimer observed. If only the fireworks warehouse is built, occupying 32 acres of the park, that figure would jump to $250,000 to $300,000 without the abatement, Weimer said. If the company gets a 50 percent abatement, it would save between $125,000 and $150,000 a year for the first 10 years, he explained.
Weimer said the abatement is justified by about $5 million in extraordinary expenses the company will incur for fireproof roof decking and structural supports, 8-inch thick concrete, extra safety exits, additional sprinkler heads that put out more water faster than ordinary sprinkler systems, and 99 ceiling fans to exhaust smoke in case of fire.
Under state law, property tax abatements may be granted to businesses that plan to create new jobs or make new investments in plants and equipment.
“We’re looking for nothing out of the ordinary,” Weimer said. It is likely that less than $2 million of the $18 million construction cost will come from state loans, all of which will be paid back, he said. “The vast majority of this project will be privately financed by us,” he added.
Nationally, the company has 50 year-round retail stores, only two of them in Mahoning County, and 1,200 seasonal retail outlets, none of them in Ohio, Weimer said. It employs 300 people year-round in its downtown Youngstown office and warehouse operations, he said. Weimer estimated that 95 percent of the company’s revenues come from outside the county.
“We’re one of those unique businesses that brings a whole lot more into this community than we take out,” Weimer said.
milliken@vindy.com