Local districts opt out: Revitalization area named for Hawkins mall land

Whitman County commissioners Monday morning took the final step in a long journey to secure state money to develop a shopping center on the Pullman-Moscow Highway at the Idaho State line.

After a public hearing that generated no comment, commissioners created a revitalization area. The area defines the boundaries where state funds will be spent on infrastructure to help Boise-based Hawkins Companies build a strip mall.

Designation of the area was required for a formal application to the state’s Department of Revenue for $5 million in funding. The county has already qualified as eligible for the funds but is required to go through the application process. Whitman County was among seven entities named in an amendment to a bill that renewed the state’s Local Infrastructure Financing Tool program, or LIFT.

If the application is approved, Whitman County will receive up to $200,000 per year for 25 years to spur the development.

Included with the application was resolutions from Pullman School District, Fires District 12 and Port of Whitman, all recipients of funds generated in the districts. The resolutions note those entities will not waive any added sales tax revenue back to the state Department of Revenue.

The resolutions were required to prevent the revenue department from collecting the extra taxes generated and then reimbursing into the county’s Hawkins funds.

Sales taxes inside the district last year generated $37,802 with $32,701 of it going to the state.

At the end of the 25-year program, projected sales tax revenue from the project is expected to generate $18,796,254 a year.

Total sales tax projected to come off the project over the 25-year span is $405,998,446.

“Just think positive thoughts,” Commissioner Greg Partch said after Monday’s hearing. “We’ve been at this threshold a couple of times already.”

Whitman County has been awarded or promised state funding for the project three times over the past two years.

The county was awarded $9 million in LIFT funds last year, before a clerical data entry error in scoring grant applications was discovered.

In order to receive the earmarked funds the county had to submit a project application to the Department of Revenue.

With the revitalization area as the final piece, the county’s application will be sent to the state this week.

Revenue officials will review the application and announce whether it will award the county funding by Oct. 31.

The funds will come from the state’s share of new sales and property taxes generated at the site.

Based on Hawkins’ anticipated timeline county officials predicted on the application that sales taxes from construction would begin coming in 2011, with a five year construction phase.

Jeff DeVoe, manager of the project for Hawkins, said last month the recession has made retailers less willing to expand into new markets.

He said Hawkins would likely have to wait out the recession before breaking ground.

Commissioners have pledged to issue $9.1 million in bonds to provide water, sewer and roads at the shopping center. Those bonds would be guaranteed with a combination of the state funding and the county’s banked .09 economic development funds, which come from a portion of the state’s share of local sales taxes.