The Portage City Council approved a 10-year property tax abatement for a new spec building next to Bass Pro Shop this week.
Councilman Ferdinand Alvarez, D-At-large, cast the sole vote against the abatement.
“This would actually be Holladay’s ninth industrial spec building at Ameriplex,” said Ryan Kelly, vice president of development for Holladay Properties.
The 88,000-square-foot building is aimed at having flexible space available when companies look for space to meet immediate needs, Kelly said. “We get calls all the time. The market wants space now,” he said. “This has been a playbook out of necessity, to build a spec building.”
The last building built on speculation at Ameriplex was filled within a year, he said. That building was 60,000 square feet.
“We’re looking for a different type of uses, for sure,” Kelly told the council. Among potential uses are light manufacturing, processing, distribution and warehousing.
“People aren’t building a lot of offices anymore,” with the pandemic demonstrating that people can work virtually. His building has available office space on each end. “We have the opportunity to do it, it’s just that people aren’t doing it much anymore.”
“Tax abatement has been just an important tool to use,” Kelly said, as businesses look for ways to reduce operating costs.
Councilman Collin Czilli, D-5th, speculated that tenants could also ask for an abatement for equipment. That’s likely to happen when a business signs a lease, Kelly said. “They’re really just trying to be flexible.”
Sanitation Superintendent Tracie Kelly said she met with Kelly after he first made his case before the council last week.
“My concern is once they find people to fill these areas, that they are given information on what to do, pretreatment-wise,” she said. Marshall wants to ensure that if they discharge water, they’re regulated a bit more.
Among the projects to be covered by a sewer rate increase approved by the council Tuesday is a large interceptor pipe to handle heavy flow to the treatment plant from the city’s north side. Lift stations are already well over capacity in that area.
Kelly suggested the city could address the issue with new tenants when they seek an occupancy permit.
Ameriplex has 33 buildings, about 3 million square feet, and is home to 65 businesses and nearly 4,000 employees, Kelly said last week.
The property will generate about $975,000 in new taxes over 10 years, Kelly said, and an estimated $170,000 of annual tax income to the city after the abatement. The vacant lot, about seven acres, generates about $4,000 annually.
Kelly said up to six tenants are completed. Currently, only about 15,000 square feet are available at Ameriplex.
“We market through real estate websites, and we interact with the brokerage community throughout the Midwest,” Kelly said. “Anybody looking for space, they talk to me, and we make it happen.”
In other business, the council rejected a requested zoning change to allow multifamily homes at the Squirrel Creek subdivision. The Plan Commission had previously recommended it not be approved.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.