A local business will no longer benefit from years of reduced property taxes after missing an annual deadline and refusing to respond to Allen County officials or its leaser.
ATC Mobility is responsible for submitting paperwork annually to show that it is in compliance with the agreement that has allowed the real property taxes to be phased in over 10 years, said Rachel Black, county senior economic development specialist.
The tax abatement for PB Development that had six years remaining was approved in 2017 for a 100,000-square-foot shell building at Fogwell Parkway and Lafayette Center Road. The project marked a $5.2 million investment.
The agreement allows the developer to pay reduced real property taxes. The first year, the developer owed no real property tax, and the price would increase by 10% each year.
The county has 23 active tax abatements that County Council has approved, Black said. Many other businesses and developments also have tax abatements, but those are within cities and towns and are managed by their councils. Fort Wayne has more than 100 active agreements.
Many abatements require a number of jobs and salary amounts as part of the commitment, but those rules have been waived for shell buildings.
The PB Development facility was one of the first spec buildings in the county. The Allen County commissioners also gave the developer a rebate for up to four years, an offer meant to ensure the project was finished in a timely manner, Commissioner Nelson Peters said in 2017.
In 2021, Standard Saybrook and Associates, based in California, bought the building, and it leased the facility to ATC Manufacturing, now known as ATC Mobility. Standard Saybrook°®¶¹app™s name is now listed on the agreement, but the company told Black that ATC was responsible for filing the paperwork.
The annual paperwork deadline was due in May, and County Council found the company was not in compliance in June.
Businesses that miss the deadline have the opportunity to file a waiver to avoid losing the agreement. Two other companies °®¶¹app“ Auto Truck Group LLC/Holman Fort Wayne Real Estate LLC and SAC Properties LLC/Faztek LLC °®¶¹app“ missed the deadline but submitted the paperwork later, so council members approved waivers to allow the agreements to continue.
Black said she has reached out to ATC°®¶¹app™s founder Steve Kitchin, including by certified letter, but hasn°®¶¹app™t heard from the company since May. Standard Saybrook told Black that it had also tried contacting Kitchin but was unsuccessful.
County Council members didn°®¶¹app™t discuss the issue or ask questions last week before unanimously voting to terminate the tax abatement.
