Cheriogotis To Push For More TIF Districts

Mobile Mayor Spiro Cheriogotis is looking to leverage tax-increment financing (TIF) to help transform the city’s south waterfront into an entertainment district filled with restaurants, bars and other attractions, AL.com reports. For now, the area contains little more than the Mobile County Metro Jail and a cluster of bail-bond businesses, but the city is considering creating two new TIF districts that would be significantly larger than the existing districts in Downtown Mobile and along Dauphin Island Parkway that have been in place since 1993. The goal is to encourage reinvestment in economically distressed and underdeveloped areas. The two proposed districts, which will be the subject of a public hearing on October 27, include the South Riverfront TIF District, south of downtown adjacent to the east and west banks of the Mobile River, and the Midtown/I-65 Corridor TIF District along the eastern side of I-65 from the city’s northern limits south to Government Boulevard/Highway 90. Cheriogotis said the city will release more detailed maps and informational videos about the proposed districts in the coming weeks. A change in state law that took effect October 1 is helping pave the way for TIF district expansion. It allows Mobile, as Alabama’s only Class 2 municipality, to include up to 50% of its taxable property value within TIF districts, up from the previous 10% limit that other Alabama municipalities are still capped at.