Carmel’s TIF districts exceed assessed-value projections

Carmel’s tax increment financing districts have $32 million more in assessed value than projected about a year ago.

Mayor Jim Brainard announced the numbers at a press conference near the construction site of the future Drury Hotel near U.S. 31 and Interstate 465 Wednesday morning.

The data from the Hamilton County Auditor’s Office shows the actual total TIF assessed property value at $1.1 billion. The estimate provided to the Carmel Redevelopment Commission last May from Umbaugh & Associates put the value at $1.08 billion.

Brainard said Umbaugh uses “extremely conservative” estimates, and actual assessed values were higher due to projects unknown at the time of the projection last May, including the Delta Faucet expansion.

The Carmel-based kitchen and bathroom faucet manufacturing company filed plans with the city earlier this year for a $15 million expansion of its headquarters at 111th and Meridian streets.

City TIF districts have 700 parcels, and Brainard said city staff counted 59 building permit applications submitted in 2014 and 2015 that will bring $26.4 million in expansions and remodels that weren’t included in the May 2014 calculation. Brainard said he expects next year’s figures to exceed expectations as well.

Carmel City Council president and mayoral candidate Rick Sharp said after the press conference that the Umbaugh projections “are only as good as the information that they’re given.”

Sharp has focused on projects include in TIF calculations that haven’t move forward as anticipated as well as assessed value calculations that don’t take into account certain revenue the city won’t have at its disposal.

For example, while the St. Vincent Women’s Center, which is slated to be built next to St. Vincent Carmel Hospital, is within a TIF district and will increase the assessed value of the property, the health center is largely tax exempt and won’t contribute to the TIF.

There’s also commitments made for developers to capture TIF revenue, like the arrangement made for the $30 million Olivia on Main apartment development. Keystone Realty Group will collect 75 percent of the incremental revenue, while 25 percent will go to the TIF.

The new report hasn’t been shared with the city council yet, according to Sharp.

“The fiscal body is rarely shared fiscal information without digging for it,” Sharp said.