Mayor looks at revitalizing downtown TIF, revisiting codes

Feb. 4—McAlester Mayor John Browne is looking at forming a new Downtown Tax Increment Financing Committee.

He's also looking at whether the city should revisit some of its building codes and regulations regarding historic buildings, especially in what would be a newly-created downtown TIF district.

The city of McAlester previously formed a Downtown TIF Committee, but the mayor said the group hasn't met in several years. Browne said he's looking at putting together a new committee, although it might have some of the same members.

Browne said the next step is to send letters to the taxing entities, which consists of those who benefit from sales or ad valorem taxes. That includes the city of McAlester, Pittsburg County, McAlester Public Schools, the Kiamichi Technology Center, the McAlester Public Library and the Pittsburg County Health Department.

If a new downtown TIF committee is formed, each of those entities should have a representative on it, along with some at-large members, said Browne. The mayor would make nominations for downtown TIF committee members, which would have to be approved by the city council

Does he have a timeline for sending letters to the taxing entities?

"I anticipate in the next 30 days," Browne said, adding that it might be sooner.

He first wants to meet with McAlester Economic Development Director Adam White and with Community Development Director Jayme Clifton to discuss the possibility of a new downtown TIF committee and possibly rehabilitating some city codes.

"It helps with development," Browne said, referring to some actions in New Jersey as an example.

"They had an old hotel that was running and the owners wanted to construct a new addition for the building," he said. Bringing the 1880 building that housed the hotel up to 2023 standards would have been prohibitively expensive to do, said Browne.

"It's an old building that has 14-inch thick walls," Browne said.

He said 2023 building codes would require windows up to a certain height for egress in case of an emergency. While the current windows were grandfathered in for the 1880 building, if the 2023 codes were applied to the entire structure because of the new addition, the project would have been unable to move forward, the mayor said.

Browne said the cost of installing new windows in the original 14-inch thick walls would have stopped the project.

"Just the cost of the windows would have made it where the project didn't make sense," he said.

Browne said he wants to make sure the current codes and regulations in McAlester are not making renovations of historic buildings unfeasible in the downtown area.

"I want to look at what we've got and see if it makes any sense to look at the codes for historic buildings, most specifically," Browne said.

Regarding both the concept for a new downtown TIF Committee and the possible updating of codes and regulations for historic buildings, Browne said he's looking at a particular area.

"The area I'm looking at is the alley south of Carl Albert Parkway, down to the south side of Wyandotte Avenue, from the west side of Main Street, to the east side of Sixth Street," said Browne.

He recently drove around that area.

"There were 53 properties either vacant or underdeveloped," and that's not including the second and third stories in some buildings, Browne said. "So there's a need to spur development."

Browne thinks this is the right time to create a new downtown TIF Committee.

"Things are going pretty well for the city overall," Browne said. "We can afford to do it," he said, especially if sales taxes are involved.

One concept is TIF funds could be used as a grant or loan to help qualifying businesses. TIF funds could also be used for beautification, trees or art, he said.

TIFs are approved by the state of Oklahoma to help finance projects that might not get completed otherwise. The city/county highway TIF committee helped lead the way to an agreement with Burk Collins & Company that resulted in the Shops at McAlester retail shopping center at the intersection of Fourteenth Street and U.S. Highway 69, also known as the George Nigh Expressway in McAlester.

Through the TIF agreement, Collins agreed to construct the new shopping center at his own expense, along with paying for the traffic signal at the Fourteenth Street intersection. In return, he gets 90% of the city's and county's share of sales tax revenue collected at the highway shopping center, for five years or until he collects $5.5 million, whichever comes first.

Sales tax collections for the city of McAlester are not only increasing at Shops in McAlester, but downtown as well, Browne said.

City Manager David Andren said shoppers from outside the McAlester area who are visiting Shops at McAlester are also going to downtown McAlester and to shops on the north side of the city and spending money.

Browne said he would like for the proposals to create a new downtown TIF committee and to revisit the building codes and regulations regarding historic buildings to be considered together.

"I would like for the whole thing to be a package," said Browne.

Possible changes to the building codes and regulations for historic buildings in the downtown area "would not be part of the TIF, but in conjunction with the TIF," he said.