Council to weigh tax-deal requests
The company would save close to $250,000 in property taxes over a 10-year period.
YOUNGSTOWN — City council will consider requests next Monday for two tax abatements, including one for a proposed CVS store on the North Side.
Orion Development, the Weirton, W.Va., company developing the CVS store, is seeking a 75 percent, 10-year real property tax abatement for the 11,945-square-foot store on Fifth Avenue, next to Stambaugh Auditorium.
The store would employ 12 full-time and 10 part-time employees with an annual payroll of $850,000, according to Orion’s tax-abatement request application.
The company plans to spend $4,807,257 on the cost of construction, the purchase of property, its furniture and fixtures, machinery and equipment, and inventory.
The biggest expense is $2,612,257 on construction.
The project is to start in June and be done by November.
The company would save $236,007 and pay $78,669 in real property taxes over the life of the 10-year abatement, according to the application.
City council can only recommend tax abatements with the final decision resting with the city’s board of control, consisting of the mayor, the law director and the finance director.
Also at next Monday’s meeting, council will consider an ordinance to make Park Avenue and Caroline Streets between Fifth and Belmont avenues two-way streets.
Orion officials said those one-way streets need to be two-way streets in order for the CVS store to be built there.
The project initially stumbled when the city’s design review committee in early February rejected it because of the location of the proposed store’s loading docks and garbage storage as well as its exterior colors.
All of those issues were resolved two weeks later with different colors, and landscaping added to the project to hide the docks and garbage storage.
Council also will consider next Monday recommending a 75 percent, 10-year real property tax abatement for an expansion project at Rudick Forensic Engineering Inc. on Tod Avenue.
Rudick Forensic focuses on property-damage consulting for lawyers and insurance companies.
The company wants to convert the upper portion of its 10,550-square-foot warehouse to office space.
The $350,000 project would start in the spring or summer and be done by winter, according to its application.
The company employs 15 full-time employees with an annual payroll of $1.2 million. It plans to hire two employees over the next three years.
If the request is approved, the company would save $57,421 and pay $19,140 in real property taxes over the life of the abatement, according to its application.
skolnick@vindy.com