A grocery store and apartment project planned for downtown would benefit Lawrence and likely deserves economic development incentives, but a low-interest loan from the city shouldn’t be among them.

At its meeting Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission will receive an incentives request from the grocery store development group led by Lawrence businessman Mike Treanor. The group is requesting a special financing district, bond agreement and a $2.25 million loan from the city to help complete the $26 million project at Seventh and New Hampshire streets on the site of the former Borders bookstore.

The old bookstore will be torn down and replaced with a three-story building with an underground parking garage. The ground floor of the building would house a Price Chopper grocery store and pharmacy, and the upper two floors would house 73 apartments, according to the incentives application. In accordance with the city’s incentives policy, 13 apartments would be designated as affordable housing units priced according to the Fair Market Rent model for the area and remain under those parameters for at least the length of the incentives agreement.

For incentives, Treanor Investments is requesting an $8.3 million, 20-year tax increment financing district, which would allow the development to receive a rebate on new property and sales taxes generated by the development. It is also requesting Industrial Revenue Bonds, which would allow the project to buy construction materials sales tax-free.

Lastly, developers are requesting a $2.25 million interest-free or low-interest loan for tenant finish of the grocery store.

The commission is only voting whether to accept the application Tuesday. A decision to receive the application does not mean the incentives have been approved, but would authorize the city to go forward with studies related to the incentives.

In the application, developers identify community benefits indicated as infill development, walkability, job creation and perhaps most importantly, increased access to a major grocery for residents of east and north Lawrence.

Tax increment financing and Industrial Revenue Bonds are typical incentives that provide significant benefit for developers and have been used frequently in the past. Proceeding with feasibility studies for the tax district and revenue bonds seems warranted.

But the $2.25 million low-interest loan request is a not a standard request. Even entertaining such a notion would create a risky precedent for the city. The city of Lawrence should not be in the business of financing commercial development, and city commissioners should make that clear on Tuesday.