THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 27, 1995 TAG: 9509270432
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONI WHITT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
City leaders are hoping to bring new business to Tower Mall and the MidCity shopping center by offering prospective business owners tax breaks, $1,000 if they hire folks from nearby, fee waivers for improving the property and low interest loans.
Those incentives would become available if the state approves the city's application to have Fairwood Homes, MidCity, Tower Mall and parts of Victory and Airline Boulevards designated as one of 14 new enterprise zones in Virginia. The entire area is nearly 1,300 acres, said Sam Workman of the city's economic development department.
The City Council said that by using the zone to create incentives for its vision for the area, Portsmouth can improve the future for the economically troubled section.
The City Council unanimously approved the application on Tuesday. It must be submitted to the state by Oct. 18. State officials are expected to announce the new zones on Dec. 1.
Council members said they plan to use the incentives to help build a commercial park in Fairwood Homes - an area filled with houses erected during World War II as temporary military housing. The council wanted to ensure that incentives could not be used to bring those homes up to minimal housing codes that would allow them to continue as low-income rental properties.
``We're not interested at all in prolonging the life of those units,'' said Acting City Manager Ronald W. Massie. ``We can control this, and a renovation would not receive these incentives.''
The city won an enterprise zone in its downtown area in 1984. Since then, there are 392 new businesses and 2,440 new jobs in the zone, and owners have invested more than $79 million in new construction and improvements, according to figures from the economic development department.
In other business: The council approved a consent decree to begin cleanup at the Abex lead foundry - an environmentally contaminated area along the Effingham corridor. The plan calls for the city, Abex and other parties to buy the single-family homes in the area, tear them down and clean up or contain the lead contamination.
The plan has long been the subject of controversy because it does not include relocation of a public housing complex built over the contaminated area. The clean-up does involve replacing the soil all around the public housing complex down to the ground water table. by CNB