Chamber says Table Talk may leave Worcester without tax relief
Photo | Grant Welker
Table Talk Pies Inc. plans to leave Worcester if it doesn't get tax relief, according to the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce.
The Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce is urging support for a tax break for Table Talk Pies Inc.
In an email sent on Monday the Chamber said “This iconic, multi-generational brand is at risk of leaving the city if the tax increment financing (TIF) package recommended by City Manager Edward Augustus is not supported by the Worcester City Council."
The manufacturer has called Worcester home since 1924, and bakes more than 3 million pies at their headquarters weekly. They are seeking a TIF valued at $4.6 million. The public financing method s used as a subsidy for redevelopment, infrastructure, and other community-improvement projects.
“Call Worcester’s city councilors and tell them you support the TIF up for a vote on Tuesday, Feb. 11. Urge them to keep an important Worcester manufacturer in the city and remind them that, if they leave, there is a lot of jobs, and dough, to be lost.”
Timothy Murray, the Chamber's president and CEO, said while Table Talk has an agreement with Chacharone Properties to build a 120,000-square-foot industrial food production facility, the pie company's president Harry Kokkinis told him they could go elsewhere.
"Harry has told me this is an area where he would like to be because it's close to his workforce, but as the Boston Business Journal recently reported, Worcester has the sixth highest commercial and industrial tax rate in the state," he said. "The whole point of the TIF is to mitigate that and incentivize companies to expand or relocate here."
If approved, the Chamber said the tax credit will spur the hiring 50 full-time workers at various management levels with salaries ranging from more than $36,000 to $65,000, and redevelop seven acres of long-vacant land in the Main South neighborhood.
The Chamber said the company has seen so much demand for their pies, less than three years after opening a 50,000-square-foot facility on Southgate Street, they hope to follow up with another production facility.
Table Talk employs 130 workers, many who live within walking distance to the Southgate Street and Kelley Square plants, the Chamber said.
Table Talk announced last month it plans to leave its Kelley Square location and build a $22-million facility at the former Crompton & Knowles campus in Main South.
The move comes as the Canal District around Kelley Square is being transformed into a mixed-use neighborhood that would include more housing, shops, and office use. The Table Talk facility sits immediately next to the planned $132-million Polar Park stadium development, in anticipation of the Pawtucket Red Sox moving to the city next year.
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What if they move to another location within the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce's membership area? Wouldn't the chamber endorse that?
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