Edwardsville, Illinois

land formerly occupied by Madison Mutual Insurance Company headquarters, will also include approximately 78,000 square feet of leasable, commercial retail space. “It will provide a very livable location for people who don’t necessarily want to buy a house on a half-acre and be responsible for maintaining the yard or different aspects of home ownership,” says Patton. “We really like the idea of this mixed-use complex,” he continues. “There are, actually, two being constructed right now that are somewhat competing against each other to get finished so each can attract residents before the other! It’s been quite a boom for us. We consider ourselves partners with the investors. You only invest your own private dollars if you’re going to get a return on your investment. We understand that. That’s why we like to work with the developers and the investors to make them comfortable, and help them succeed in our community.” Patton says that the city typically uses one of three different economic investment tools. “We have the Enterprise Zone here in the state of Illinois,” he notes. “That was used to attract Amazon and Amazon facilities, as well as the World Wide Technology Buildings. That is seven years of tax abatement on the property with 10 percent due in the 8th year, 40 percent in the 9th year, and 70 percent in the 10th year, and then full tax after that. So that’s a very lucrative benefit to attracting the larger warehouses and also job creators. “On the local level, we do have TIFs (Tax Increment Financing). A lot of our development is not taking place in the TIFs because most of our TIFs have been very successful and there are not a lot of additional development opportunities in some of our TIFs, at this point. But we have put together business districts where there is anywhere between a half-cent and a full-cent sales tax added on to retail purchases, and that money can be used for infrastructure improvements within that development.” One of the two large mixed- use facilities currently under construction is taking advantage of the business district with a 1-cent sales tax addition onto retail sales; the other project is not, since it’s being developed without incentives.