The Downtown Revitalization Tax Exemption applies to new multi-family residential and commercial buildings as well as renovations within the revitalization area spanning from the waterfront to Pine Street and the Millstone River.
The exemption provides a ten‐year tax exemption on the municipal portion of property taxes within the revitalization area. Currently a new building must have a building permit value of at least $500,000 and multi-family residential buildings must have four or more units to qualify for the tax exemption. The value of renovations must equal half of the current assessed value of the property to qualify.
So far, six buildings with a total of 709 units, mostly market rentals, have benefited from the tax exemption.
At the governance and priorities committee on Monday, council voted to limit the tax break to developments with a minimum of 10 units and a building permit value of at least $2 million. The length of the tax exemption was also reduced to five years, down from the current exemption of 10 years.
Council also voted to limit the number of extension requests to two and to give staff the authority to approve applications for the tax exemption.