Alstom tileMayors Andy Berke and Jim Coppinger announced today that the city and county are in the middle of negotiations with Alstom, which has not met their tax break obligations to create 300 new jobs by Dec. 31, 2014.
Neither Berke or Coppinger would give any specific details of the negotiations, but said litigation is a last resort if the government agencies and the company can't come to an agreement.
"This has been a long, complicated process," Berke said this afternoon.
The Riverfront Parkway facility, which makes equipment primarily for coal-fired power plants, was awarded a new payment-in-lieu-of-tax agreement, or PILOT, in 2008, but the company has fallen behind on its end of the deal.
The PILOT agreement called for an increase of about 300 jobs by Alstom between July 5, 2007, and Dec. 31, 2014. And the agreement stated that if the company failed to achieve the projections on jobs and investment, the city and county reserve the right to terminate the benefits of the agreement for its remaining years.
In 2013, Alstom laid off 80 employees at its turbine facility and then in February the company announced it would cut 100 jobs at its Chattanooga boiler services plant.