Lansing officials are studying whether to create a tax increment financing district at the long-struggling Landings Shopping Center on Torrence Avenue, north of 171st Street, could boost economic development there.
The Village Board made way Tuesday for a feasibility study to determine the eligibility of properties within the shopping center for a TIF district. TIF money can be used to pay for public improvements as well as incentives for developers.
“We just have a lot of vacancies up there, and we haven’t been able to do anything about it,” Lansing Administrator Dan Podgorski said Thursday.
Podgorski said the village considered creating the Landings TIF district about five years ago but decided to wait until more of the strip mall’s abandoned properties were off the tax rolls.
The village owns one such property, the former Ultra Foods at 16831 Torrence Ave., which Podgorski says has sat empty for about a decade. He said establishing a TIF district could encourage another grocery store or other retailer to move into space that is now tax exempt.
“This would be a TIF that would be project driven — that we would need in order to bring those developments,” Podgorski said. “We would need the incentive.”
In a TIF district, property taxes for all government bodies are frozen at levels at the time it is created and any increase due to higher property values, the increment, is used to pay for improvements or incentives TIF districts typically expire after 23 years but can be extended to up to 35 years
Other taxing bodies, such as school districts, don’t see increased property tax revenue from any development until after the TIF expires, and don’t have a share of any community’s sales tax money redevelopment might create.
The board agreed to pay adviser SB Friedman, which similarly surveyed the long-vacant Sears store at Orland Square shopping center, an estimated $64,500 to survey the Landings Shopping Center.
The area the firm will study includes several vacant retailers, some of which still have their old signs. On the north side of the strip mall, adjacent former clothing stores Factory 2-U and Givona Jolie stand empty, adorned with banners indicating their availability for sale.
Cars begin to crop up further south in the parking lot, as Forman Mills and Burlington continue to attract sparse traffic. The area being studied also includes breakfast restaurant Golden Bear Pancakes and Crepery Restaurant, at 16851 Torrence Ave., and Kenny’s Ribs and Chicken, at 16825 Torrence Ave.
Podgorski said he is excited about the future of Lansing’s economy as the village focuses on ushering in businesses on other parts of Torrence Avenue, including the additions of a Starbucks, Chipotle, Taco Bell and Chick-fil-a.
“You’ve got a dozen or more new businesses in that corridor — we feel we’re like just getting started,” Podgorski said.
He said there are other properties throughout Lansing the village hopes to acquire and redevelop.
“We’re building that momentum,” he said.
