The Wilson Borough Council and Wilson Area School District have granted a tax break, known as Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance, to a developer who has been scarce on details but big on presentation for the potential redevelopment of the former Dixie Cup factory in the borough.
The developer, Nick Tsapatsaris, president of Nick Tsapatsaris & Associates in Ridgewood, New Jersey, is now seeking the same kind of tax break from Northampton County. While some may be impressed by the number of windows that will be replaced, elevators that will be repaired or renderings that have been drawn, there are several more important measures that should be considered prior to granting such a tax benefit. Thankfully, cooler heads can prevail, as the Northampton County Council Economic Development Committee is asking meaningful questions.
Because this development is around the corner from my home, I became very interested in learning more about the plans for its potential development when I attended a borough council meeting in April. When I heard the site would become what the developer calls “a last-mile logistics center,” I was shocked. The developer said at a June 2 meeting of the Northampton County Council Economic Development Committee his tenant profile for a redeveloped Dixie site is approximately 10% office, 20 or 30% package breakdown area and the rest for storage. That is 60-70% warehouse use for a 640,000-square-foot site between Easton Area High School, Wilson Area High School and down the block from Wilson Elementary School.
The Dixie Cup manufacturing plant in Wilson was in use from 1921 until the 1980s. The 600,000-square-foot complex has been vacant since 2011. (APRIL BARTHOLOMEW / THE MORNING CALL)
Granted, this site is zoned for industrial use; a property owner should be able to do what they want with this site. Except there’s one problem: this developer is not yet the property owner. He has an agreement in principle with the current owner, Wilson Park LTD, which is headed by Salisbury Township attorney Joseph Reibman.
In other words, the developer is asking the taxpayers of the borough, school district and county to grant him this tax benefit before he has even closed on purchasing the building. The developer said at the June meeting of the Northampton County Council Economic Development Committee that the deal hinges on obtaining the LERTA status. If the county does not grant this benefit, he doesn’t purchase the site, it remains underutilized, and the eyesore remains. I can appreciate the eagerness of local officials to see this site finally developed (and generating tax revenue) after decades of neglect, but taxpayers deserve to fully understand what is going on at the site and how it will impact them.
Perhaps you would like to know how many good-paying jobs will be created through this project. Or perhaps you are interested in how air quality will be impacted by the reactivation of the site’s 34 loading docks. Maybe you’re wondering how much more congested the roads will be around the site, including the Route 22 interchange. If so, you have the same questions that members of the Northampton County Council Economic Development Committee had at their meeting on June 2, and, like them, you still don’t have answers.
By the developer’s own admission, the same presentation made to the committee was made to the school board and borough council in months prior. How such fundamental questions remain unanswered is an insult to taxpayers. In the absence of such vital information, it is the responsibility of our elected officials to ask questions, find answers and decide accordingly, not to serve as a rubber stamp for a plan that lacks important details.
While I’m disappointed in my school board and the borough council, I am encouraged by the concerns and questions raised by the Northampton County Council Economic Development Committee, particularly council members and county Executive Lamont McClure, who suggested he would veto a LERTA resolution if passed by the council. Because of the approvals from the school board and borough, it falls to our county elected officials to prevent a misuse of taxpayer dollars.
Thankfully, a LERTA resolution to support the Dixie Cup site’s redevelopment into a warehouse has not yet been introduced at the Northampton County Council. If we’re lucky, that will continue to be the case. The issue is on the agenda for the county council meeting set for 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the government center, 669 Washington St., Easton.
The LERTA program was established by the Pennsylvania General Assembly under the authority of the Pennsylvania Constitution’s Article 8, Section 2, which allows tax exemptions to “encourage improvement of deteriorating property or areas.” To allow a warehouse to go forward at this site would decrease air quality, further congest our roads and reduce overall quality of life. In short, it would improve the property at the expense of the area. Our elected officials should not have to choose; they should leverage LERTA to improve both.
Armando Moritz-Chapelliquen is a Wilson resident.