Money woes delay police station

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February 1, 2012

By Brian Livingston / blivingston@themeridianstar.com The Meridian Star The Meridian Star Wed Feb 01, 2012, 06:00 AM CST

MERIDIAN —     Construction of a new police station has stopped and isn’t scheduled to resume until March 15, project developer David Watkins confirmed Tuesday.

   Watkins said the project, renovating an old grocery store building on 22nd Avenue into a new police station that will serve the entire department, has taken significantly longer than expected to finance.

   He said there have been significant delays in closing on the new market tax credits, which are an important aspect of the project’s funding. Watkins said the original closing date for the tax credits was expected to be December 15, 2011. The date has been pushed back, he said, because of problems with coordination between the numerous entities involved with the tax credits and because it took longer to than expected for the tax credits to be allocated for the project.

   Watkins stressed that the project is not unfunded, there is just a delay in accessing the funds.

   “The tax credit closing has taken much longer than anyone anticipated,” he said. “There’s money in the project. We just can’t get access to it until there’s a closing.”

   He said the delay will not cost the city anything.

   “The city’s not obligated to pay anything until the building is done,” he said. “The impact on the city is, it’s an inconvenience because we’re pushing the project (construction) back 45 days.”

   Watkins said there may have to be additional amendments to the city’s lease on the building, which has already been amended once after concerns were raised about the burden it put on the city.

   The city is committed to lease the building for a minimum total of $8.2 million over the course of the 20 year lease.

   Watkins said he doesn’t know exactly what the amendments will be, other than the fact that they will be tax credit related and that “the economic benefit to the city will not be any less.”

   Watkins said the tax credits account for roughly half of the value of the project, not taking into account the cost of financing with tax credits. He said the tax credits allow his company to construct the police station as a “turn key” project, meaning the city will not be responsible for the building until it is ready, furniture and all, for the department to begin using it.

   He said that this prevents problems like the one his company is currently having with a similar project in Jackson. The company had to ask the city of Jackson for an additional $250,000 to complete the wiring in a building they are retrofitting for use as city offices. But Watkins said that, since the Meridian project is a “turn key” project that uses new market tax credits, his company – not the city – is responsible for any such setbacks.

   Though there is no definite completion date, Watkins said work on the building is “50 percent complete” and that he expects the building to be ready “sometime this summer … before the fall.”

   “Since it’s going to be me on the hook for paying (for any delays), I can guarantee you I’m going to be pushing for much faster (contstruction),” he said.

   “It’s a badly needed facility,” he added. “We need a high tech, first class police facility, and we know the city can’t afford it without the tax credits.”

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