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Officials in the town of Windsor are looking at a new way to try and shed the dead weight on their tax rolls.
The Windsor Finance Committee is scheduled to review a proposal tonight to grant tax abatements to projects that convert office space to housing or mixed-use assets.
The town has a “substantial vacancy and functional obsolescence” in parts of its office inventory, particularly in its Day Hill neighborhood, Economic Development Director Patrick McMahon wrote in a memo to committee members included with the agenda for tonight’s meeting.
To fix it, McMahon wrote, developers need to be steered towards reinvesting in aging office buildings to meet what today’s employers demand, or converting those properties to housing. A tax incentive policy would do just that, he argues, while adding needed housing, making parts of the town more walkable to reduce traffic and strengthen its tax base over the long term.
McMahon’s memo asks the Finance Committee to consider an “office building reinvestment incentive” that would fix a property’s assessment at its development value through the completion of construction, then lower its taxable value by half over five years.
The incentives would be open to any building less than 40 years old – meaning this incentive couldn’t be combined with an existing rehabilitation tax incentive – that’s been at least 45 percent vacant for 12 consecutive months, where the developer plans to invest at least 20 percent of a property’s assessed value in improvements, excluding acquisition costs, and where any housing being added would include a 20 percent affordable housing component open to people making 80 percent of area median income or 10 percent of units for people making 60 percent of area median income.
McMahon’s memo also outlines a district-based new housing development incentive that would offer similar benefits.
“Projects are expected to generate net positive fiscal and economic benefits over time, particularly where reinvestment preserves or enhances taxable value and employment,” McMahon wrote.
