The City Council was planning to approve a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) loan Monday for a new car wash being built at Tenney and McClure streets.
But the approval was put on hold after one of the partners in the car wash project objected that the deal had been changed from what the council had originally agreed to. The attorneys advising the city on TIF matters recommended a loan for less money than the car wash developers had sought — and the council had verbally agreed to.
“We were not communicated with” on the change suggested by the attorneys, said Chris Roginski, one of the partners in KTown Real Estate. “The lack of communication coming from this office is ridiculous.”
KTown Real Estate is building the car wash on the site once occupied by the Piggly Wiggly supermarket and later by the Tenney Bowl.
Roginski said the car wash will cost more than a million dollars, and KTown Real Estate has already invested large sums of money in the project.
City Manager Gary Bradley said the attorneys “changed the agreement from what we decided.” Originally, the amount of the TIF loan was set at $221,061, but the attorneys apparently felt that was too much.
Bradley stressed that the council is under no obligation to follow their attorneys’ recommendation, and can make the grant for any amount they feel is appropriate.
Mayor Gary Moore supported sticking to the original agreement for the TIF grant.
“I have a hard time stepping away from” the agreement, Moore said.
“We owe our investors in our community better communication,” Councilman Adam Cernovich said.
The recommendation for a lower TIF grant caught council members off guard, and City Clerk Kasey Mitchell said the city didn’t receive the recommendation from the TIF attorneys until last Friday. The information was shared with council members at that time, she said,
Council members seemed to favor staying with the original agreement on the grant amount, but did not vote Tuesday on approving the grant.
Councilman Chris Colomer suggested that the council put the vote off for two weeks, and the council agreed.
