The Chattanooga City Council will consider giving property and other tax breaks for a new distribution facility Amazon.com plans to build near the Volkswagen plant in the Enterprise South industrial park.
Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield told council members today that representatives for the Seattle-based Internet retailer and the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development are scheduled to appear before the full council at 6 p.m. tonight.
Amazon representatives were delayed this afternoon in Atlanta and did not attend a committee meeting where the tax incentives were scheduled to be reviewed. Under the preliminary plan set to go before the council tonight, the city and county will forego most of the property taxes due on Amazon’s proposed $110 million distribution complex through 2022.
The preliminary 12-page agreement for consideration by the city, county and Industrial Development Board of Chattanooga calls for an Amazon affiliate known as US Real Estate Limited Partnership LLC of Texas to construct and equip a 1 million-square-foot complex and hire 1,249 persons over the next three years.
The distribution warehouse will pay the educational portion of county taxes, however. That is equal to about 27.1 percent of what would otherwise be charged in property taxes on the facility, according to the agreement.
Littlefield said representatives from Nashville and Seattle are traveling to Chattanooga for tonight’s meeting to consider the tax breaks.
Details in Wednesday’s Times Free Press.