Following a public hearing during which no one spoke, the Chelsea City Council unanimously approved a 7-year, about $4.448 million tax abatement for Hayes Sumner, a sister company of Chelsea Milling Company on Monday, April 21.
The company requested an industrial facilities tax exemption of about $3.7 million in real property and about $733,000 in personal property.
Hayes Sumner bought the warehouse and property at 140 Buchanon St. from the city in August, 2012 for $175,000. The company plans to use the 72,000-square-foot warehouse on the property as a temperature controlled warehouse space to store ingredients for the milling company.
No new jobs are expected to be created by the tax abatement but two jobs are expected to be retained said John Powers, a company representative.
He said that once the new facility is operational, probably in August, deliveries of some materials that normally are received at the North Street building would now be delivered and stored at the Buchanon Street building.
He said the new facility is “part of our ongoing investment in the city.”
Several council members asked what the relationship was between Chelsea Milling Company and Hayes Sumner. Powers said that they were related companies with common shareholders and that Haynes Sumner was a purchasing company.
The City Council unanimously approved the authorization to sell $450,000 in bonds for the Chelsea Downtown Development Authority, which plans three planned downtown projects. The bonds are scheduled to close on April 30 through Chelsea State Bank.
In addition, the council approved sending a new zoning text section to the Planning Commission “to promote and protect the M-52 corridor overlay district.”
In a related vote, the council also approved an agreement to hire consultant Clearzoning, Inc. to help the city with planning review and analysis of the McCoig Materials application for a proposed sand mine in Lyndon Township.
This did not include a monetary amount, rather an agreement to hire the consultant as needed in the future.
The City Council also heard from a large number of Chelsea Bark Park supporters, who would like to place a dog park in Timbertown, and there will be a separate story about the discussion later this week.
