Columbus City Council signed off today, July 2, on a nearly $50 million bundle of tax abatements for five development projects, a package city leaders say is aimed at kickstarting new construction while keeping hundreds of existing jobs from walking out of town.
As first detailed by The Columbus Dispatch, the council vote covered a mix of industrial, warehouse, and office deals. City staff materials on the Columbus City Council docket put the combined tax relief at nearly $50 million and project about 188 new jobs while retaining roughly 1,300 existing positions. One of the largest pieces in the stack, a Rickenbacker Community Reinvestment Area request, is shown with roughly $21.6 million in proposed tax savings in its own project fact sheet, according to the TCG OCP fact sheet.
Hikma expansion keeps more than 1,200 jobs
The marquee item in the package is tied to Hikma/West-Ward. City paperwork describes the deal as retaining about 1,224 full-time positions while adding roughly 50 new jobs as part of a $215.7 million investment. Staff framed the incentive as a way to lock in a large manufacturing payroll and help the company expand its local footprint rather than look elsewhere.
Smaller projects round out the package
Rounding out the slate are a series of smaller, but still heavily structured, incentives. Council approved an Enterprise Zone agreement for Dupon USA to build a new baking-equipment facility, a Trident Capital industrial project on Corrina Drive, and a small flex-warehouse plan in Westbourne, along with a downtown office incentive.
Staff fact sheets attached to the council docket show the five measures running the gamut from modest downtown tax-credit payments to multi-million-dollar Community Reinvestment Area abatements. For several warehouse positions, the staffing models project hourly wages at or around $20 an hour.
With the votes in hand, the agreements now move on to signatures, and the project fact sheets outline near-term construction timelines for multiple sites. According to the city materials, the incentives will be monitored under the usual performance rules that tie the tax breaks to specific job and payroll commitments.
