www.marejournal.com P ennsylvania S potlight C entral By Susan Eberly, Lebanon Valley Economic Development Corporation Creating a competitive edge; a step in the right direction E conomic Development Corporations playamain role in attraction, re-
Mid Atlantic Real Estate Journal — Pennsylvania — March 14 - 27, 2014 — 11A
ment approvals and access to low interest financing has been important in creating a competi- tive edge for the County. Proven Partnerships The key to success is having partners that arewilling to align their visions so that everyone is walking in the right direction. InLebanonCounty, the LVEDC often acts as a conduit between real estate developers and the County, City and local officials. Proactivelyseekinganddevelop- ing relationships that create an environment of camaraderiehas helped to ensure that real estate development transactions occur with ease. This strong sense of teamwork by local officials, utility repre- sentatives and others recently helped to land a nice develop- ment project inLebanonCounty.
The company was experiencing some infrastructure, permitting and zoning issueswithseveral of the key sites in the region that they were exploring for their newbusiness venture. Theyhad an aggressive time table and wanted to move quickly. The LVEDC was instrumental in bringing their county partners to the table to find solutions for their concerns. The company was impressed with the coop- erationand timely response that occurred within the community. They noted that this was one of the main reasons that they moved forward with the project in Lebanon. Access to incentives One of the first steps the partners addressed in working together was to examine incen- tive programs and determine
how they fit into the develop- ment plan. Establishing new zones and implementing incen- tive programs does not happen overnight, it takes a lot of coop- erationand coordination. Strong established relationships are helpful whendiscussingand im- plementing incentive programs. Knowing that competition for companies is great, officialshave determined that incentives such as; Local Economic Revitaliza- tionTaxAssistanceAct (LERTA) andKeystoneOpportunityZone (KOZ) designations must be considered. These incentives are used to lure capital invest- ment into the area. The Local EconomicRevitalizationTaxAs- sistanceAct (LERTA) whichhas beenon the state books since the 1970’shas seensome resurgence inLebanonCounty. Several des-
ignations have beenapproved in the last year as a means to spur interest in real estate develop- ment and improvements in the County. Beingwilling to forego a portion of taxes initially in order to gain the long termadvantage, takes foresight. Knowing that taxes are ahuge factor for a lot of companies and that KOZ sites in the City of Lebanon were set to expire at the end of 2013, theCity, County, Township and School officials took a close look at the advan- tages of extending and creating new zones. They determined that it would be beneficial to extend the time frame onseveral designated sites and approved three new parcels to the KOZ program. This incentive already has helped to spur some recent continued on page 13A
tention and e x p a n s i o n projects. They are an excel- lent aide in coordinating resources to ensure that projects flow smoothly. As
Susan Eberly
a major land owner and conduit of resources the Lebanon Valley Economic Development Cor- poration (LVEDC) has played a lead role in the real estate market. They recognize that definingkey areas of importance in the real estate arena such as; partnerships, access to incen- tives, established parks, timely permitting and land develop-
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