Council has approved a 20-year PILOT regarding the residential development project scheduled for the site consisting of 338 apartments.
As construction continues along Route 70 at the shopping center once known as Tri-Towne Plaza and now heralded as the Shoppes and Residences at Renaissance Square, township officials continue to defend the use of New Jersey’s Payment In Lieu of Taxes program.
While the existing structures at the site undergoing enhancements are subject to standard taxation by the township, council recently approved a 20-year PILOT regarding the residential development project scheduled for the site consisting of 338 apartments.
As with other PILOT projects, the agreement allows developer Evesham Owner Urban Renewal, LLC to forgo property taxes on the apartments in exchange for agreeing to pay the township an amount determined by the annual gross revenue generated from the apartments.
With this specific agreement, Evesham Owner will pay 10 percent of the annual gross revenue generated from the apartments in years one through 10 of the agreement, with the amount increasing in increments to 15 percent by the final, 20th year of the agreement.
Upon receipt of that revenue, the township is then required to pay 5 percent of the amount to Burlington County.
Evesham Township manager Tom Czerniecki said the township wouldn’t know the exact amount to be collected each year until construction is complete and revenue can be audited.
The 338-apartment project is set to include 304 market rate units consisting of 168 one-bedroom units and 136 two-bedroom units, with the remaining 34 units set aside as affordable units to be split between six one-bedroom units, 21 two-bedroom units and seven three-bedroom units.
In response to critics who question the value of PILOT programs, in particular those who believe school districts should share in PILOT revenue, Czerniecki said the value of this project and the benefit to the township in the coming decades would be much greater than had it not happened.
“They (Evesham’s school districts) will have a positive income from this development in the long run for almost eternity,” Czerniecki said. “If there’s a period of time by which a PILOT is needed to make a project possible, that’s just a small investment wove into what the benefit is going to be.”
Czerniecki said the township does not anticipate many schoolchildren from the Renaissance apartments, and compared the PILOT to the township’s agreement with the Marlton Gateway Apartments at the former municipal building on Main Street.
Czerniecki recalls the building sitting empty for around 15 years until the township entered into a five-year pilot with the developer.
With that PILOT set to end in the middle of next year, the township expects the project to bring in projected revenues of about $172,000 per year in 2019 using the current tax rate, with those monies then split between the township, county, local school districts and other taxing entities.
With only two school-aged children now in the Gateway complex, and no taxes being collected while it sat empty for a decade-and-a-half, Czerniecki said the local BOE has benefited from the situation.
“That is going to be net benefit for the Board of Education, but we’re not asking them for that money back,” Czerniecki said. “We made money for them by virtue of the redevelopment project, but we’re not asking for the difference back.”
As for the rest of the Shoppes and Residences at Renaissance Square project, construction work continues on enhancing nearly 80,000 square-feet of the existing buildings.
Virtua Health is set to occupy 32,000 square-feet of space at the center, with the new facility expected open later this year and include primary and surgical care, physical therapy and pulmonologists.
Other announced businesses include a LaScala’s Italian Restaurant, La Vez Mexican Restaurant, Gaetano’s Pizzeria and Steaks, a hair salon and a nail salon.
Unlike the future apartments, Czerniecki said there is no PILOT for businesses placed in the existing structures.
“The existing structures will be taxed under standard taxation,” Czerniecki said. ”There will be no PILOTS. Obviously, there will be an assessment adjustment based on the improvements they’ve made, but that’s part of the regular taxation process.”
However, Czerniecki said any future commercial projects not in existing structures at the site could be subject to their own, separate PILOT agreements.
