Developer wants $2.6M in TIF help

Port Washington officials are expected to decide next week whether to provide $2.6 million in tax incremental financing to make Pier Street Landing, a 51-unit apartment building planned for downtown, a reality.

Haley Dobre, who has proposed constructing the apartment building on a parking lot she owns between Pier and Washington streets west of Franklin Street, said the money is needed to help cover the cost of underground parking, stormwater management and relocating utilities on the site.

“We need a little help,” she said. “We can only do this with the TIF assistance.”

Dobre made her case for TIF funding during the Jan. 6 Common Council meeting, telling aldermen that the benefits of her planned apartment building merit the financing.

“The spirit of TIF (district) 2 was to bring development to downtown Port Washington,” she said, noting the parking lot she’s building on has been pegged for mixed-use development in the downtown plan. 

The development will bring year-round residents to downtown, Dobre said, adding, “What we really need is year-round foot traffic downtown.”

Not only will the residents of Pier Street Landing provide that, she said, two retail spaces she will have on the first floor of the building will provide more places for residents and tourists to visit.

Dobre said the site is complex, with a significant grade change from east to west and a significant amount of utility work that’s required.

The private parking lot on the site is underutilized, she said, and provides little in the way of taxes to the city while Pier Street Landing will contribute a significant amount of taxes.

The Landing, she added, will make a profit by its third year that “grows quickly after that.”

“I’m looking for a long-term investment in Port Washington,” said Dobre, who also owns the Boerner Mercantile Building on Franklin Street. “I think it’s a really good fit for this community.”

Ald. Deb Postl noted that the return on investment without the TIF funding is only about 4.5% but with it is about 9% — figures that Dobre said proves the need for TIF financing. 

“No one would take on the risk for a 4% return. They could make that with a CD,” she said. “This (TIF financing) helps get it to the range where bankers would find it invest-able.” 

Dobre said she hopes to start construction of Pier Street Landing in June, with completion of the project expected next year.

In a TIF district, the properties within the district continue to increase in value and are charged property taxes commensurate with that increase, but taxing entities such as cities, counties and school districts only receive the same amount of taxes they did when the district was created.

Any additional tax revenue generated by the development, called increment, is to be used to pay for infrastructure and similar amenities within the district.  Once the costs are repaid, the TIF district is dissolved and the entire value of the property to put on the tax rolls.

Dobre is proposing a so-called pay-as-you-go TIF, in which she would pay the upfront costs and be repaid through the increment.

Dobre’s property is in the city’s TIF 2 district, a sprawling area that encompasses not just downtown but also areas north and west of the downtown that was created in 2010.

The district was originally expected to last 27 years, but last year Finance Director Mark Emanuelson said it is now expectedto close in 2031.

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

If the Common Council agrees to provide TIF funding for Pier Street Landing when it meets Jan. 20, that closing date will be extended.