BOARDMAN, Ohio - The company that operates the Southern Park Mall is asking Mahoning County, the Western Reserve Port Authority, Mahoning County Commissioners and Boardman Local Schools to approve incentives to help the mall carry out a $30 million redevelopment plan.

A media release issued Thursday by Washington Prime Group described the incentives as commonly-used economic development tools to offset $6 million in costs.

Matt Jurkowitz is the Vice-President of Development for the Washington Prime Group, "So with this type of project and with this type of incentives package - what it allows us to do is to tap into those specific and unique costs.  The storm water costs, the demolition and abatement type costs that come when you have an existing site like this.  So we're excited to be allowed to leverage it because it then allows us to expand the scope of all the good things that are going to be done with the remainder of the budget.  And that's really what this is about -- amplifying the investment."

Washington Prime Group would fund 100% of its project costs upfront and be reimbursed a portion of its costs over time through a series of programs.  The maximum time would be 15 years we're told.

The mall owners would work with the Western Reserve Port Authority to save on sales tax paid on construction materials.

Washington Prime is asking Mahoning County Commissioners, Boardman Township, and Boardman Local Schools to establish a program allowing the company to keep a portion of new real estate taxes generated from the newly created property value.

Owners also want a share of property taxes on mall property for a limited time. The news release does not specify how long that time period would be.

The news release says no local governmental agency, including Boardman Local Schools, is being asked to forego any budgeted revenue through the proposed incentives package.

Only new taxes generated from new development would be impacted, and only for a limited period of time, according to Washington Prime.

Also, the company says residents of Boardman or Mahoning County will not be asked to pay any new property tax as a result of the proposed incentives package.

Washington Prime says the incentives would offset costs associated with things like site costs relating to cleanup of the former Sears site, preparation of land for the new DeBartolo Commons green space, sports fields, and construction of new storm water facilities that will alleviate potential flooding.

"When it comes to the storm water issue, what this ultimately is geared to do is to alleviate some of the downstream flow that's running off of our parking fields and we've got a lot of them here, into just the generic storm water system locally.  This is going to allow for us to basically take some of the burden off of surrounding communities, and by doing that alleviate some of the downstream flooding that exists," Jurkowitz said. 

Boardman Schools would be given priority when it comes to using the DeBartolo Commons green space and sports fields, according to the news release.

A proposed walking and bike path would connect DeBartolo Commons, Southern Park Mall, to Boardman Park as part of Township's Active Transportation Plan under the proposal.

Washington Prime Group will host Coffee with the Community on Friday, December 13 at Southern Park Mall where community members may ask questions regarding the Southern Park Mall redevelopment project and incentives package

Boardman Local Schools and Mahoning County officials have separately agreed to vote soon on separate incentives, according to Washington Prime.

Washington Prime Group says it is using local unionized labor to perform the renovation work.

The redevelopment of the former Sears site at Southern Park Mall is expected to be completed by next fall.