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TO: Mayor Thomas J. Weisner
FROM: Bill Wiet, Chief Development Services Officer
DATE: May 2, 2016
SUBJECT:
To request approval of the Third Amendment to Seize the Future Development Foundation (STFDF) Finish Line Downtown Grant Program. This Third Amendment amends the Finish Line Grant Boundary to include an expanded portion of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District No. 3 (west of the Fox River), pursuant to Resolution R14-152, amended.
PURPOSE:
In 2013 the City of Aurora and Seize the Future Development Foundation created a public private partnership in which STFDF will perform all the economic development functions for the City. Resolution R13-182 provided the framework for the partnership, including the funding of the expanded organization. STFDF is also tasked with developing incentive programs for the purpose of commercial revitalization throughout the City of Aurora.
BACKGROUND:
The goal of the Finish Line Grant Program is to create a streamlined, simple and quick process to aid in economic development downtown. Whereas most of downtown falls within Tax Increment Financing District (TIF) #1, a portion of TIF 3 (River City) was included in the program. The program provides $500,000 from the two TIF Districts listed above for implementing the program. The program originally provided up to 20% of the total project costs to any one project in an incentive amount not to exceed $75,000.
A First Amendment to the Finish Line Grant Program was approved by the City Council in May of 2015 to modify the percentage of reimbursement for eligible projects based upon the total project costs. This First Amendment created a sliding scale system for determining the percentage of reimbursement.
A Second Amendment was approved by the City Council in September of 2015. The Second Amendment created the Downtown Restaurant Forgivable Loan Program, which allows a forgivable loan for one-third (1/3) of costs up to a maximum of $100,000 for costs...
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