Development in the Piedmont Triad Research Park got a $6.2 million helping hand from the city of Winston-Salem last night.
The Winston-Salem City Council voted unanimously to provide an economic-incentive agreement to Wake Forest University and Wexford Science and Technology, a Baltimore-based development company, to return $6.2 million in property taxes. Wake Forest and Wexford have proposed to spend $87.7 million to turn a former R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. tool-operation building at the corner of Fifth Street and Patterson Avenue into laboratories and offices. The building could eventually be a workplace for more than 650 employees in the bio-medical and technology fields.
Deputy City Manager Derwick Paige said the incentives would come from money paid in property taxes on the building after it is developed. The city would not pay any incentives up front, he said, but would reimburse Wake Forest and Wexford after the first tax bill had been paid.
"The dollars that we're putting in are new tax dollars, that if the project did not occur, we would not have," Paige said. "These are new tax dollars that don't exist today."
Paige said the city would use about 80 percent of the tax revenue generated by the building -- which is estimated to have a taxable value of about $55 million -- to pay back the incentives. He said that if the building did not end up being valued that high, Wake Forest and Wexford would not get as much money back.
The remaining 20 percent of paid taxes would generate about $1.2 million over 20 years.
The city's tax incentives would reimburse Wake Forest and Wexford for such things as streetside landscaping, moving utility lines, installing fiber optics and building a park.
Robert Clark, the council member who represents the city's West Ward, said the plans to renovate the building were "the best news this city has had in years."
"They're willing to make a huge investment," Clark said.
The building, which is known for its glass façade, was donated by Reynolds to the Piedmont Triad Research Park.
Council member and Mayor Pro Tempore Vivian Burke, who represents the city's Northeast Ward, said she was concerned that development in the research park seemed to be focused on Wake Forest University. Burke said she wanted Winston-Salem State University's presence in the park to grow. She said she wanted more job opportunities for minorities.
"There must be and should be diversity when we look at jobs," Burke said. "You talk about job opportunities on Fifth Street … and you move a little bit farther and you have unemployment among minorities."
lgraff@wsjournal.com
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