City commissioners approve tax break for Treanor relocation / LJWorld.com

A $2 million project to convert a vacant downtown building into the new headquarters of a Lawrence architecture firm won a key tax break from Lawrence city commissioners Tuesday.

Commissioners at their weekly meeting agreed to provide a tax rebate to Treanor Architects for a project it is planning for the former Strong’s Office Supply building at 1040 Vt.

“What we have here is a dilapidated building in downtown,” City Commissioner Aron Cromwell said. “We don’t have many of those, but this is one, and we need to work to take care of it.”

The city agreed to use the Neighborhood Revitalization Act, which will allow Treanor to receive a rebate on a portion of the new property taxes that will be generated by the project. The city, county and school district will continue to receive all the taxes they currently receive from the property. But as the project is built and the tax bill rises, Treanor will receive a rebate for the next 10 years.

The rebate will start at 95 percent in 2012 and gradually fall to 20 percent by 2021. After 2021, the project will not receive a rebate.

The tax rebate did draw an objection from one member of the public. Jim Mullins, a Lawrence resident and field director for Americans for Prosperity, said he questioned whether the city was properly using the Neighborhood Revitalization Act.

“The state gave us this tool to clean up shabby or blighted neighborhoods,” Mullins said. “Not to help a developer get a tax break without adding one new job to the community.”

Mullins objected to the fact that the rebate was being offered even though Treanor is proposing only to move employees from two existing offices in Lawrence to downtown.

But commissioners said bringing more employees to downtown is an important way to strengthen the overall health of downtown.

Commissioners, however, delayed a decision on another part of the project. Commissioners said they wanted more information from city staff about the downtown parking system before agreeing to convert a two-hour city parking lot into a 10-hour lot near the 1040 Vt. site. Treanor is asking for the lot to be converted to a 10-hour time limit to accommodate employees. The company also is asking to buy 50 long-term parking passes from the city for $195 each, with assurances that the price of the permits won’t increase for at least 10 years.

The newly elected City Commission is expected to hear the parking issue at its meeting April 19. The Douglas County Commission and the Lawrence school board each will have to consider whether they want to be part of the tax rebate program. Both are expected to take up the issue later this month.

cheeseburger 2 years, 1 month ago

Guarantees that the prices won't increase for ten years? Where else does that exist? Can the taxpayers have that same guarantee? Surely a firm making big money can afford price increases just as the rest of us poor saps have to.

The commissioners good hoodwinked on this one. Methinks Cromwell is probably too close to this issue and probably should have abstained from voting.

KRichards 2 years, 1 month ago

The public show know what the average salary is at Treanor if they are receiving all these tax breaks, parking assurances, and parking rate decreases. This is information that every other development provides when getting tax breaks.

Hell that parking in downtown will be cheaper than most parking at the University. If students can afford expensive parking, then the $100,000 salaried architects can afford expensive parking like the general public that heads downtown.

Last point, so we are bringing more people downtown with a tax break while continuing to blight other areas of the community with empty buildings.

FlintlockRifle 2 years, 1 month ago

Congrats Mike on your new digs, welcome to downtown---

oneeye_wilbur 2 years, 1 month ago

What is wrong with the commissioners picking and choosing a project instead of having a defined area with boundaries that allows anyone within the boundaries to be eligible.''

I guess it is just like Schumm getting one lot downtown classified as Agricultural and paying 74cents a year, and a free sprinkler system as well.

This isn't about Treanor moving downtown , this is about a city commission that picks and chooses projects for the Neighborhood Revitalization Act, and the J/W is too lazy to really review the act and point out that normally a certain area is eligible, or in the case of small Kansas towns, the entire city.

Even Mullins doesn't get it either.

Why sell passes to Treanor when the employees can park for free on side streets.