JOHN E. SETTLE Jr.
Editor
Focus SB News
Last month Mall St. Vincent was sold by its Delaware owner to a company based in Great Neck, N.Y. The terms of the sale were not included in the deed, which reflected $10 and other valuable considerations for the sale.
The Shreveport Mall St. Vincent Economic Development District, which is a Tax Incentive Financing (TIF) District, was not affected by the sale. This district, which imposes an additional 1% sales tax on the sales within the district, is effective from July 1, 2013, until June 30, 2033.
The TIF encompasses the entire mall, with the exception of Dillard’s and the old Sears building.
The additional sales tax are remitted to the Shreveport director of finance and maintained as a separate fund. These moneys are to be utilized for marketing and improvement of the properties within the TIF.
In November 2013 the then-mall owner, Rouse Properties, announced that $16 million would be expended to improve the appearance of the mall. These expenditures were to be reimbursed by the TIF sales tax collections.
The TIF tax collections from August 2013 through July 2021 are $2.83 million.
The best full years of TIF collections was $414,000 in 2015. Since that year the collections declined each year to $249,000 in 2020.
TIF taxes through July of this year are $216,000. Whether this upward trend will continue is an open question since the stimulus and additional unemployment benefits have ended.