La Salle Economic Development committee passes grant opportunity to council

The city of La Salle may have some unique economic development opportunities coming its way following Thursday’s economic committee meeting.

The committee recommended the approval the potential application to the Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity for the River Edge Redevelopment Zone Program.

According to the website, RERZ helps revive and redevelop environmentally challenged properties adjacent to rivers in Illinois.

Economic Development Director Curt Bedei said that La Salle was in a unique situation given that the river bends outwards from the city’s rivers edge compared to other communities.

“One of the qualifications was that the river’s edge has to be within 1,500 yards of the proposed area,” he said.

Bedei said after discussing the area with a member of the Illinois Department of Commerce, the city drew up a map for consideration — taking into consideration the coroner edges of the river.

“It mainly encompasses mostly downtown,” he said. “If not all the downtown area which would be most beneficial for this type of programming.”

Bedei said RERZ is a tax incentive for anybody that’s looking to invest or improve their properties that are qualified within the zone that has been indicated through the map.

“So, if you bought a building and it was somewhat blighted and you wanted to improve it and put in offices— this would be an incentive for you to be able to get some tax credits,” he said.

The committee also approved the PACE Program be forwarded to council for further consideration for an ordinance with consideration with additional answers from the committee.

The committee wanted to know the probability of successful projects in other communities, how they operated and the incentives that they were used in the process.

Both recommendations will be sent to the La Salle City Council for final approval.

Bedei said the potential of the two programs within the city if they were to pass would enable people to take advantage of something to improve their properties where they wouldn’t have been able to do so prior.

“This is much more advanced than a facade program,” he said. “This makes our community much more attractive to investors who are looking to relocate or expands their businesses or even the ones who are already here that are looking for some type of advantage to improve their buildings.”