By Greg Chandler
Zeeland Record
Zeeland city officials have cleared the way for JR Automation and the city itself to receive tax incentives tied to the development of the company’s new world headquarters.
The City Council Monday night voted unanimously to add the 45.5-acre site at the southwest corner of Riley Street and 84th Avenue to the city’s brownfield redevelopment plan.
This will allow JR Automation and the city to capture up to a combined $12.6 million in tax revenues that are expected to be generated by growth of the parcel’s property value to repay them for eligible costs of developing the site. The vote came after a public hearing.
JR Automation, a high-tech company that specializes in the design and production of automated manufacturing and robotic integration products, is building a 565,403-square-foot facility at 800 E. Riley, of which 500,000 square feet will be used as manufacturing space.
“Anything on earth that someone wants to automate, whether it’s Yeti cups, Lockheed Martin radar domes, carbon fiber wings for Boeing 787 planes and a ton of automotive work to support Detroit – Ford, GM, etc. – (we can build that),” company chief financial officer Sean Ryan told the council.
Ryan also noted that the company does a great deal of manufacturing work for pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company.
“If you use any sort of medical device – IVs, pumps, anything like that, it’s all manufactured by JR,” he said.
JR Automation is investing $72.8 million into building its new headquarters, on what was the last remaining industrial-zoned piece of land in the city capable of accommodating a project of its size.
More than 1,000 existing JR Automation jobs would relocate to Zeeland as a result of the project, and the company expects to add at least 150 more jobs in the first six years that the new facility is open. That’s according to a company application to the city for an industrial facilities tax break, which the council will address next month.
The parcel became eligible as a brownfield site through the Ottawa County Land Bank Authority earlier this year. The authority voted in late January to recommend approval of a development agreement between the land bank and JR Automation, where the land bank took temporary control of the property. It made the site eligible for the use of tax increment financing for infrastructure and other site development costs.
“This is the first time the Ottawa County Land Bank Authority has assisted on a brownfield (plan) for a previously undeveloped site,” said Community Development Director Tim Maday, who serves as vice president of the land bank authority. “We had to look at it and (ask) ‘does this fit our mission, does this move things forward in the county?’ When we started to work through our policies and procedures and goals, it was quite obvious that a project like this … is right within our framework.”
JR Automation is incurring costs to prepare the site for redevelopment that include clearing, grubbing, land balancing, grading, geotechnical engineering, staking, cut and fill operations, temporary construction access, erosion control and temporary facilities.
Meanwhile, the city plans to upsize the water main and relocate electrical infrastructure underground. Also in the works are a $3 million reconstruction of 84th along the project’s eastern border, expansion of the community bike path system along Riley and 84th Avenue, and construction of a railroad crossing on 84th, project consultant Samantha Mariuz of Fleis & VandenBrink told city officials earlier this year.
JR Automation will seek reimbursement of $4,101,975 that it is investing into its site development, City Manager Tim Klunder said.
Meanwhile, the city could recoup up to $8,531,000 for its various improvements. It will seek to be paid back $4,531,000 for its infrastructure work, and could seek up to $4 million more should it move ahead with building a roundabout at the intersection of Main Avenue and Fairview Road. The roundabout is being considered to address an expected increase in traffic that would come from the JR Automation project, Klunder said.
No school or state taxes will be captured in the tax-increment financing process, Klunder said.
The current total taxable value of the JR Automation property is $574,942, and the estimated post-development taxable value after all phases of construction are complete is expected to reach $31 million in 2027, Mariuz said.
Zeeland Record
Zeeland city officials have cleared the way for JR Automation and the city itself to receive tax incentives tied to the development of the company’s new world headquarters.
The City Council Monday night voted unanimously to add the 45.5-acre site at the southwest corner of Riley Street and 84th Avenue to the city’s brownfield redevelopment plan.
This will allow JR Automation and the city to capture up to a combined $12.6 million in tax revenues that are expected to be generated by growth of the parcel’s property value to repay them for eligible costs of developing the site. The vote came after a public hearing.
JR Automation, a high-tech company that specializes in the design and production of automated manufacturing and robotic integration products, is building a 565,403-square-foot facility at 800 E. Riley, of which 500,000 square feet will be used as manufacturing space.
“Anything on earth that someone wants to automate, whether it’s Yeti cups, Lockheed Martin radar domes, carbon fiber wings for Boeing 787 planes and a ton of automotive work to support Detroit – Ford, GM, etc. – (we can build that),” company chief financial officer Sean Ryan told the council.
Ryan also noted that the company does a great deal of manufacturing work for pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company.
“If you use any sort of medical device – IVs, pumps, anything like that, it’s all manufactured by JR,” he said.
JR Automation is investing $72.8 million into building its new headquarters, on what was the last remaining industrial-zoned piece of land in the city capable of accommodating a project of its size.
More than 1,000 existing JR Automation jobs would relocate to Zeeland as a result of the project, and the company expects to add at least 150 more jobs in the first six years that the new facility is open. That’s according to a company application to the city for an industrial facilities tax break, which the council will address next month.
The parcel became eligible as a brownfield site through the Ottawa County Land Bank Authority earlier this year. The authority voted in late January to recommend approval of a development agreement between the land bank and JR Automation, where the land bank took temporary control of the property. It made the site eligible for the use of tax increment financing for infrastructure and other site development costs.
“This is the first time the Ottawa County Land Bank Authority has assisted on a brownfield (plan) for a previously undeveloped site,” said Community Development Director Tim Maday, who serves as vice president of the land bank authority. “We had to look at it and (ask) ‘does this fit our mission, does this move things forward in the county?’ When we started to work through our policies and procedures and goals, it was quite obvious that a project like this … is right within our framework.”
JR Automation is incurring costs to prepare the site for redevelopment that include clearing, grubbing, land balancing, grading, geotechnical engineering, staking, cut and fill operations, temporary construction access, erosion control and temporary facilities.
Meanwhile, the city plans to upsize the water main and relocate electrical infrastructure underground. Also in the works are a $3 million reconstruction of 84th along the project’s eastern border, expansion of the community bike path system along Riley and 84th Avenue, and construction of a railroad crossing on 84th, project consultant Samantha Mariuz of Fleis & VandenBrink told city officials earlier this year.
JR Automation will seek reimbursement of $4,101,975 that it is investing into its site development, City Manager Tim Klunder said.
Meanwhile, the city could recoup up to $8,531,000 for its various improvements. It will seek to be paid back $4,531,000 for its infrastructure work, and could seek up to $4 million more should it move ahead with building a roundabout at the intersection of Main Avenue and Fairview Road. The roundabout is being considered to address an expected increase in traffic that would come from the JR Automation project, Klunder said.
No school or state taxes will be captured in the tax-increment financing process, Klunder said.
The current total taxable value of the JR Automation property is $574,942, and the estimated post-development taxable value after all phases of construction are complete is expected to reach $31 million in 2027, Mariuz said.
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