A year from now, Austin residents can expect to see the new Cooperative Response Center’s corporate and call center headquarters fully operational as they turn from the Hy-Vee Food Store parking lot onto 18th Avenue NW.

Tuesday, March 07, 2000

A year from now, Austin residents can expect to see the new Cooperative Response Center’s corporate and call center headquarters fully operational as they turn from the Hy-Vee Food Store parking lot onto 18th Avenue NW. At 10,000 square feet, it will be difficult to miss. And for $1, the price on the lot is one the 24-hour call center won’t be able to pass up.

CRC won’t be the first business in northwest Austin to take advantage of a generous tax increment financing (TIF) offer from the city. Holiday Inn would not be where it is today but for TIF, add Kmart and Cash Wise Foods as well as Worlein Funeral Home. Still, according to Third Ward City Council member Dick Lang, that was then and this is now.

Lang’s was the lone "nay" vote when City Administrative Services Director Tom Dankert recorded council votes concerning the creation of the city’s 11th Tax Increment Finance District Monday night.

"I’ve been opposed to this project all along because I believe that is a prime piece of real estate," Lang told fellow council members and the 30-some people gathered in the Council Chambers. "I think that land would be developed without TIF incentives … and I’m concerned because the city of Austin has a history of giving land away for $1."

Austin City Administrator Pat McGarvey explained the costs to the city of purchasing the 10 to 13 acres of land targeted for the TIF district. CRC will locate on 2.3 acres of that land. The 6-acre lot now owned by the Austin Port Authority was part of a deal with the Joseph Co. for the city’s spec building in late 1999. McGarvey put a $200,000 price tag on that land, plus a promised $94,500 for 3.62 acres now owned by businessman Burt Plehal, and an unknown figure for the possibility of purchasing the land Brown-Wilbert Vault Co. now owns. Once the city installs services and extends Eighth Street NW to the back of the TIF district land, the city probably will have $2.3 million invested.

"We can get the money one of two ways," McGarvey said. "We can sell the different lots once they’re platted to private parties. In an ideal world, you’ll get what you have in them … If that price kills the deal, it’s no good. That’s where tax increment financing comes in. You use the difference in the tax base (before and after development) to pay the city back."

Former council members Ruth Rasmussen and Bob Dahlback both took a turn at the podium during the public hearing on the district: Rasmussen to encourage the council to vote for the TIF district, Dahlback to berate the council and mayor for only offering financial assistance to "outside people." "You don’t help local people, but bring someone in from the outside and you put $1 million on the table," Dahlback said, listing Jones Cabinets and M.J. O’Connor Inc. as two examples. "What disturbs me is that CRC is going to go to Stevens Point, Wis., if you don’t give them the package; I heard that one from a council member."

No one spoke from CRC during the meeting, but after the vote CRC CEO Todd Penske laughed about the Stevens Point comment.

"The only connection CRC has with Stevens Point is that my best friend lives there," Penske said.

Penske, a former council member who resigned when negotiations between CRC and the city intensified, said it was difficult not to respond to Dahlback’s comments to the council, but that he and CRC Board Chairman Steve Healy had decided to speak only if it were necessary.

"The focus tonight was more on TIF No. 11," Penske said. "That’s a lot more than the CRC. We’ll only be a part of that."

As for CRC not being local, George Brophy, director of Development Corp. of Austin, rebutted that allegation.

"This company has been around Austin for 10 years," Brophy said. "If 10 years doesn’t qualify you as being a local company worthy of support … plus most of its employees are from Austin and have families here."

Several of the audience members were CRC employees.

"It was nice that they came to show their support," Penske said.