Council OKs $10 million in incentives for retail center

The Maricopa City Council has approved about $10 million in tax incentives for roadway and infrastructure improvements at a big box retail development at Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway and Porter Road.

The agreement reached Tuesday allows Shea Maricopa, LLC to start work on the first phase of the Maricopa Wells retail center. It will come to Shea as reimbursed development fee credits, construction and retail sales tax reimbursements.

The retail portion of the complex is estimated to generate $82 million during the next 15 years, said Maricopa City Manager Rick Buss.

“$62 million are reoccurring revenues, which means they are not one-time revenues that are here and gone,” said Buss. “That is very positive for the city.”

City Manager Rick Buss discussed tax incentives for Shea Properties at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

Buss said the revenues needed for the improvements would not be available without the project.

“Our development plan is simple,” said Buss. “It’s a reimbursement of public improvements.” He said to get public improvements built today, the city is leveraging future tax revenues.

Planned infrastructure improvements include widening the Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway, constructing Porter Road and installing traffic signals.

The incentive approval came with the council’s acceptance of Resolution 07-16 that took into consideration a state statute that forbids cities from reimbursing or giving tax incentives that exceed revenues.

The city paid for independent evaluation by Pollack & Co. to certify cost evaluations presented by Shea Properties.