COMIDA OK’s revised mall plan

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Work could begin within 30 days now that a revised payment-in-lieu-of-taxes deal has been approved for a $30.3 million redevelopment project at Marketplace Mall.

The project is expected to bring a retailer new to New York by the next holiday shopping season, as well as bring two other retail stores and restaurants to the Henrietta mall by 2015.

Board members of the County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency, or COMIDA, on Tuesday approved a PILOT agreement of $2.9 million annually over 20 years — five fewer years than the 25-year deal mall owner Wilmorite Inc. had first proposed.

The deal is a critical piece necessary to obtain the financing for the plan to redevelop about 1 million square feet of retail space, said Dennis Wilmot, senior vice president of leasing and development for Wilmorite.

“We’re going to work under the agreement and do our best to fulfill our obligations under it,” Wilmot said. “We’ll make it work.”

The approval of the financing agreement does comes over the objections of some residents and the Rush-Henrietta school district.

Rush-Henrietta School Superintendent Kenneth Graham said at a public hearing earlier in the week that while he supports the project as a benefit to the mall and to the town of Henrietta, the financing deal carries tax-cap implications for the district and he was concerned over the length of the deal. Also, the school district would not see added tax benefits if the project were tremendously successful or receive adequate protections if it is not successful, Graham said.

That could mean cutting programs and services or passing the tax burden on to residents.

“We don’t think that’s fair and that’s not the way the law is written,” Graham said.

The revised agreement is a result of listening to the concerns expressed by the public, said COMIDA Executive Director Judy Seil.

Wilmorite still is obligated to pay a locked-in 1 percent tax increase each year of the agreement, which Wilmot said is an improvement over a 10-year trend of .18 percent school and town tax increases.

Based on the success at bringing people to the revitalized Mall at Greece Ridge — also owned by Wilmorite — the Marketplace Mall plan also will benefit the town and school district and other businesses, said COMIDA board member Eugene Caccamise.

“If it works there, it’s going to work in Henrietta,” Caccamise said.

The identity of the major new tenant may be announced this week, Wilmot said.

The tenant will be located on mall property, where the stand-alone and vacant former DSW store building is now. Two other tenants would take over the Bon-Ton store, which is slated to close in February 2014.

The hope is not only to create 175 to 200 new jobs over the next three years, but also to boost traffic for existing mall stores and business around the mall, Wilmot said.

“We have to give shoppers a reason to come back to Marketplace Mall and shop,” Wilmot said after the public hearing. “In its current form, that’s not happening. We need to do something to reinvigorate the mall.”

The COMIDA board is able to approve incentives for retail projects if the project is deemed a tourist destination, and Wilmot believes this plan qualifies. He is basing the projection on studies of sales figures at Eastview Mall, which added a similar iconic retailer in L.L. Bean and more recently saw the Von Maur department store open.

An increase of 38 percent of incremental sales from shoppers outside the five-county trade area who visit Marketplace is forecast, based on what happened at Eastview, Wilmot said.

“We think the comparison is fair,” Wilmot said.

The study that justifies the project as a tourist destination has not been vetted by an entity without a vested interest in the findings, Graham said.

“To think there is going to be a significant increase in tourism as a consequence of these retail establishments — it’s a little hard for us to believe that,” Graham said.

Fairport resident Bob Warth urged the board to be more selective and conduct better research into projects it supports.

“I think the project can be done with tax breaks or not,” Warth said.