TIF districts to pay off soon for Port

Port Washington’s three tax incremental financing districts are doing so well they are each expected to end earlier than initially projected.

“It’s a very desirable position to be in,” Port Finance Director Mark Emanuelson recently told the city’s Joint Review Board and General Government and Finance Committee, which reviewed the status of the districts as the city worked to create a TIF district for the Vantage Lighthouse Data Center Campus. 

The reasons for their success, he said, includes the fact the city used “rational estimates” for the projects financed with TIF funds, the fact the community has appreciated in value and the fact the city has worked hard to mitigate any risks inherent with a TIF district.

The largest of the existing districts, TIF District 2, is a sprawling area that encompasses not just downtown but also areas north and west of it.

Created in 2010 with a base value of $14.8 million, the district was formed to revitalize downtown and expected to last 27 years at the onset, but Emanuelson said the district now is expected to close in 2031.

That year, he said, the district is projected to pay off its debt, adding $85 million to the city’s tax rolls.

“That’s a significant addition,” Ald. Dan Benning, chairman of the General Government and Finance Committee, said.

But there is at least one and maybe more projects under consideration — projects that could change the date the district dissolves, he said.

The city has received an application from Haley Dobre, owner of the Boerner Mercantile Building, for $2.9 million in TIF funding for the development of Pier Street Landing, a $20 million apartment building she plans to construct on a parking lot Dobre owns west of Franklin Street between Pier and Washington streets.

The money would be used to bury power lines and create underground parking for the 51-unit apartment building.

And Monday the City’s Community Development Authority talked of using TIF funding to purchase the former Harborview Cleaners at the corner of Franklin Street and Grand Avenue and funding a redevelopment project that could encompass the neighboring Pebble House site and adjoining parking lot.

TIF District 3, which was to help finance the proposed Cedar Vineyard subdivision along Highway C and improvements to the city’s industrial park, is projected to end in 2028, Emanuelson said — despite the fact the subdivision never became reality.

And TIF 4, a pay-as-you-go district used to finance Spring Harbor Senior Apartments, affordable senior housing on a former trailer park off South Spring Street,  is expected to end in 2035, 12 years earlier than expected, Emanuelson said.