A Memphis company is slated to seek tax breaks today to buy and revamp a couple of Chattanooga apartment complexes, but a citizens group is raising a question because Mayor Andy Berke’s father is a partner in the ownership group of one of the properties.
Alco Properties is to seek approval from the city’s Health, Educational and Housing Facility Board for a payment-in-lieu-of-tax (PILOT) agreement, as well as the issuance of $7.5 million in revenue bonds involving the Woodlawn Apartments and Windsor Terrace.
Robert Hyde, Alco’s president, said the group is planning to spend $6.4 million to renovate the exterior and interior of the 163 apartment units located at 2300 Wilson St.
Hyde said 100 percent of the units would be rented as “affordable” to low- and medium-income residents with incomes at or below 60 percent of the area median gross income. Alco is seeking property tax breaks for 10 years and a five-year phase-in period thereafter to raise the taxes paid on the apartments from 20 percent to 100 percent by year five.
“There is a need for these in Chattanooga,” Hyde said.