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HomeNewsArchivesMALL TOUTS LIBRARY PLANS IN EDC EXTENSION BID

MALL TOUTS LIBRARY PLANS IN EDC EXTENSION BID

May 4, 2001 – Tutu Park Ltd., which owns Tutu Park Mall on St. Thomas, sweetened its bid for an extension of tax benefits from the Economic Development Commission Thursday by presenting plans for a new mid-island public library to be constructed on mall property next to the Plaza Extra supermarket.
At a hearing before the EDC on St. Thomas for nine businesses seeking new or extended benefits, the company unveiled preliminary plans for a 20,000-square-foot library and records repository.
According to Tutu Park Ltd. officials, earlier plans called for locating the library at a site behind Tillett Gardens. The new plan would situate it on a knoll next to the supermarket, with possible access from the nearby residential area as well as the mall.
In 1989, when Tutu Park Ltd. initially applied for tax benefits under the former Industrial Development Commission before the mall was built, one of the things it pledged to do was make 20,000 square feet of mall space available without charge for five suggested community uses. It proposed that the space be used for a combined public library and University of the Virgin Islands library annex, UVI satellite campus classroom space primarily for evening business courses, UVI's Small Business Development Center and V.I. Tourism Awareness and Advancement Link (VITAAL), and a meeting hall to be under the joint control of UVI and the Legislature.
Marjorie Roberts, an attorney representing Tutu Park, said Thursday that the library would be donated to the people of the Virgin Islands in perpetuity.
Also in Tutu Park's presentation, general manager Debs Crowley asked the EDC to approve a reduction in the number of employees required for the company to continue to qualify for benefits, to 12 from 14. She stressed that the change would be implemented through attrition.
Crowley said Tutu Park Mall has 56 tenants that employ about 800 people, and its occupancy rate is well above the average for shopping centers. The company promised further capital investment of $1 million.
Of the nine businesses going before the EDC Thursday seeking new benefits or extensions, the only one to see opposition from a member of the community was an asphalt manufacturer, Island Roads Corp.
Licensed St. Thomas contractor Cheryl Sturgess said that granting tax breaks to construction companies such as Island Roads "has the effect of shooting local businesses in the foot."
The V.I. government "has a duty to provide a level playing field for businesses," Sturgess said, "and this does just the opposite." She emphasized that she was not singling out Island Roads, which was applying for an extension of benefits, but was making the argument that construction businesses in general were a poor choice for tax breaks.
In its application, Island Roads proposed an additional capital investment of $500,000. The company employs 21 people.
Compliance reports had not yet been filed for Tutu Park Ltd. and Island Roads, so no questions were taken regarding their bids for renewed benefits. Nadine Marchena, EDC assistant chief executive officer for Industrial Development, said the recent restructuring of the commission, a backlog of applicants and lack of staff had delayed completion of the reports.
Commission members and officers peppered all seven of the new business applicants with questions, usually concerning wages and benefits proposed for employees.
Those seeking tax breaks for the first time include a St. Croix artist whose decorative glass plates are going global, management and financial services companies, and the patent holder for a fuel-oil preheating device who wants to manufacture, market and sell the device from Water Island.
Jan Mitchell-Larsen and her husband, Stefan Larsen, have spent a couple of years developing a computer-assisted technique for engraving her designs onto glass plates and recently formed the Gecko Group LLC to market and sell them. "We’re at a crossroads," Mitchell-Larsen, who has lived on St. Croix for more than 20 years, said. "Orders continue to grow steadily, and we're at the point where we either have to go a good deal bigger or scale back."
With a $200,000 capital investment, the company will be looking to hire a dozen employees locally, many of them straight out of local high schools, as artist-trainees.
The Gecko Group's application was greeted warmly by the commission members. Mary Ann Pickard praised the company for offering employment to young Virgin Islanders who are not necessarily going on to college. John Sheen, assistant Labor commissioner, encouraged the company to look into the Labor Department's subsidized programs for employees.
After admiring some of the plates, Louis Willis, board member and Bureau of Internal Revenue director, asked whether the Gecko Group makes anything bigger. Mitchell-Larsen said the company's wares run from small jewelry items to pieces as large as 18 inches in diameter.
Water Island resident Bob Wilkinson's ThermoBooster, about the size of a pocket cigarette lighter, was patented in 1979 in response to high home-heating oil prices in the northeastern United States and also to environmental concerns. The simple device heats the oil to its optimal pre-burn temperature of about 110 degrees Fahrenheit, thus decreasing fuel consumption by as much as 15 percent and leaving virtually no unburned hydrocarbons to be spewed up the chimney and into the atmosphere.
Wilkinson sold more than 750,000 of the devices during the early 1980s, but demand for the product on the part of retailers fell by the wayside as energy prices fell. Now Wilkinson and partner Rob Maietta are looking to Internet marketing and sales for the ThermoBooster, which they intend to manufacture on Water Island. The company will invest $75,000.
The commission granted the company an extension to two years in the length of time by which it must employ at least 10 persons; EDC regulations set one year as the usual time frame for compliance.
Other companies applying for EDC tax benefits were:
– J. Gordon Gaines-VI Inc., a management services business for 14 insurance companies that would hire 10 employees by the end of the first year and promised an initial capital investment of $100,000.
– Kazi Management, a business/management consulting firm for KFC and its parent company, TriCon, that would start with capital investment of $150,000 and would have 10 employees by the end of its first year.
– Galt Capital LLP, an investment management and advisory services firm promising initial capital investment of $250,000 and 10 employees in its first year. The company proposed a Galt Scholars program to be administered through the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands that would award computers to 25 qualifying V.I. students each year.
– N Tax LLC, a software development and sales business for management services companies. Its software, four years in development, helps tax planners and professionals by sifting and simplifying tax codes. N Tax would employ 24 people in its first year and invest $152,250.
– Cinammon Bay Partners, the first investment advisory firm on St. John, would hire 10 employees in its first year and invest $200,000.
Representing the EDC at Thursday's hearing in addition to Marchena, Pickard and Willis were Francois Dominique, EDC special assistant executive director; and board chairman Dean Plaskett. Marchena said the commission would meet at least twice more in May to expedite decisions regarding these applicants and others that have applications pending.

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