[CouvScott]

Vancouver, Wash., officials approve tax break for development project

POSTED: Tuesday, August 16, 2011 at 03:11 PM PT
BY: Nick Bjork


The Vancouver, Wash., City Council on Monday evening approved a 12-year property tax exemption for the residential portion of a proposed downtown mixed-use building.

The 12-year exemption will save Vancouver-based developer Elie Kassab, owner of Prestige Development, approximately $93,000 annually over that period on his proposed $16 million Prestige Plaza development. It’s an exemption that Kassab said he needed to gain the financing required for the project.

“One of the steps I needed to secure the financing from the bank was the exemption,” Kassab said. “As soon as it is deemed legal we will move forward with the bank.”

The project Kassab is proposing consists of two identical five-story buildings with a total of 92 rental units and 11,300 square feet of ground-floor retail space. Kassab said the permits are pulled for the project and he plans to move forward with construction as soon as the Burgerville building that currently sits on the property is demolished in October.

The tax break is authorized under Washington state legislation that was initially approved in 1995. The exemption allows developers to forgo property taxes on the residential portion of a development for up to 12 years if the property is located in a designated urban center and the project helps meet housing goals.