The Community Development Committee met 02/12/2025. They took up two items related to Thrivent’s planned development on their property north of 41 and west of Ballard Road. The first was a request to enter into a $100,000 cost reimbursement agreement with Thrivent Finance for Lutherans to help the city pay for consulting services related to the project including a consultant who would help them investigate the possibility of creating a Tax Incremental District (TID) for the area. The second was a request to award a $14,000 to Ehlers to provide TID creation services and further fiscal analysis services to be billed at $325 an hour.
This item was approved by the committee by a vote of 4-1 with Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim casting the dissenting vote who was not opposed to the city seeking reimbursement for some of the costs associated with review of the development but was concerned about the possibility of creating a TID and has stated on her aldermanic blog, “I am of the opinion that Thrivent can make this development happen without the city’s contribution through TIF dollars.”
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
Back in July of 2024, Thrivent unveiled its concept master plan for the property just north of 41 that currently houses its headquarters. Thrivent envisions mixed-use development of office and retail buildings along Highway 41, a shopping and business corridor to the north, and then a mix of single-family, multi-family apartments, townhomes, and mixed-use commercial/residential buildings. They plan to build a new Thrivent headquarters and repurpose the old one. The development would include open spaces, parks, trails, and pathways. Of note, this plan is conceptual in nature and subject to change as Thrivent moves forward with implementing it over the space of a decade or more.
Community Development Director Kara Homan told the committee that because of the complex nature of the development “in particular in our engineering division, there is need for additional capacity and specialized engineering consulting services to really do a thorough job of the infrastructure planning.” In order to be able to pay for those services, the city reached an agreement with Thrivent that Thrivent would front $100,000 to the city up front which the city could use to pay for various consultants that they would hire to work on the city’s behalf. If for some reason $100,000 did not prove to be enough money, the city would be able to request additional funding.
She also noted that as part of the agreement, if the city hired a consultant and then for some reason work on the development needed to stop or the Common Council did not approve something, Thrivent would not be able to claw back the money that had already been spent.
The city expected to hire consultants for a number of different areas. They wanted to hire Ehlers to review the possibility of creating a Tax Incremental District in the area of the project. They also expected to hire one that focused on how bicycle and pedestrian traffic impacted vehicle traffic and flow. They also planned to hire a consultant to provide storm water and flood control related services.
Ehlers which would provide consultancy services related to the creation of a TID was the consultant that the Community Development Committee was asked to vote on. The $14,000 fee would come out of the $100,000 that Thrivent fronted as would any costs beyond what was covered by that $14,000 which would be billed at $325 an hour.
Alderperson Hartzheim was concerned about the language of the agreement which authorized hiring a consultant “for TID creation services”. She was concerned that by agreeing to hire a consultant to investigate TID creation that the city would put itself on a path where, as a matter of course, it was going to end up creating a TID. She was concerned how the creation of a TID in this area and the associated loss of the increased tax dollars for the period of time the TID was in place would affect the school district and the county taxes.
Director Homan said that the proposal from Ehlers started with an analysis of whether a TID was even feasible. After that they would start fleshing out a map of the proposed TID and creating a development proposal. She also noted that creating a TID required approval from multiple committees not only from the city but also from Outagamie County. Nothing in the agreement with Thrivent obligated the city or any of the other involved entities to create the TID.
Finally, Director Homan pointed out that even though the taxing jurisdictions wouldn’t get the increased tax increment from that development during the time of the TID, they would “still get to benefit from net new construction that results from the TID. So, it’s not that they wouldn’t be able to raise revenue, they just wouldn’t be getting it directly from those particular parcels.”
The committee ended up voting to approve each item by a vote of 4-1 with Alderperson Hartzheim casting the dissenting vote.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1256188&GUID=307B070B-A832-4C5E-8EDD-5194E86213C7
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