A group of property owners in the west end of downtown Billings want to create a new tax improvement district.
The proposed boundaries of the new district would be Division Street, 1st Avenue North and North 31st
The pros and cons and options available to them was explained to a gathering of some 30 people at the Granite Tower building, last Thursday, headed by one of the property owners Russell Fagg, whose family owns Granite Tower, as well as the Fratt Building, a former school, located just across the street.
“There are pros and cons,” said Fagg, “I think the pros out-weigh the cons.” While very supportive of the idea, Fagg credited Jeff Kanning, a principal of Collaborative Design, an architect firm, with initiating the idea.
Kanning said that the creation of a TIF would give the area a public investment tool to make improvements that would make the area and Billings more attractive. He said that Billings is in a competition with other cities in the state to attract a workforce – “and Billings is losing.”
“This is an undefined, hidden gem. It could be a lynch pin” to more downtown development. “Maybe we could get city hall to locate down here,” he said. It’s about “place making” and to help enhance the neighborhood. “It’s not to compete with One Big Sky District,” Kanning added.
Kanning said that one possible vision for the area was to build a trolley/bus system to serve the area and connect it to the hospitals and the rest of downtown.
Fagg explained that the cost of improving property often exceeds what the market can afford to pay in renting or leasing. Being able to tap into TIF funds to build some of the basic infrastructure for a project, such as a street, helps make the development economically feasible.
