Tax Breaks On Tap In Westborough
[This story has been updated to include information from the tax increment financing agreements between Westborough, MicroChem and Danafilms. Town Manager James Malloy provided the information Thursday afternoon.]
A year after Westborough approved its first ever tax increment financing deal, to keep eClinicalWorks in town, two more tax deals could be on the horizon.
Selectmen voted Tuesday evening to send the TIF proposals to special town meeting on Aug. 7. The deals could create 43 new jobs in town over the next five years.
Local blown film manufacturer Danafilms Inc., which has its headquarters on Otis Street, and Newton-based MicroChem, a specialty chemicals manufacturer, are the two applicants.
Danafilms employs 62 people in Westborough and would pledge an additional 20 jobs by 2017. It hopes to expand operations to an adjacent property on Fisher Street, currently valued at $1.3 million. MicroChem, which is based in Newton, would move its 47 employees to a vacant building at 200 Flanders Road and create 23 new jobs by 2016. The building is currently assessed at $3.4 million.
The companies. which plan to invest in upgrades to two Westborough properties, would receive property tax discounts on the new growth for a period of 15 years, including 50 percent in year one, 40 percent in year two, 30 percent in year three, 20 percent in year four and 10 percent for the remaining years.
Malloy wrote in the special town meeting warrant that Danafilms is considering moving operations to Kentucky, where it has a facility.
Messages left Wednesday with MicroChem and Danafilms executives were not returned.
TIFs Still New In Westborough
These days, it seems many companies are getting TIFs, which generally involve a company pledging to create jobs and invest in a property in exchange for discounted property taxes on the new growth for 10 to 20
TJX Cos. just won TIFs in Marlborough and Framingham. Hamilton Storage Technologies in Franklin received a TIF late last year. And a Devens film studio that recently broke ground is getting one, too.
Cities and towns use TIFs to attract companies and tax revenue and to convince those who say they are shopping around for other locations to stay.
Westborough has approved one such deal to date.
The town approved a TIF last year worth $190,000 for eClinicalWorks, which makes software for electronic medical records.
The company, which employed roughly 400 people at the time the deal was done, purchased a building on Technology Drive and moved its operations there from the Westborough Executive Park on Route 9.
Image credit: freedigitalphotos.net
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