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Mandan News

Mandan offers tax breaks to first assisted-living community in the city

Written by: Matt Bunk

The Mandan City Commission has approved a five-year property tax exemption to a company that wants to build the first assisted-living community in the city.

The commission’s 3-2 vote on Oct. 4 to approve the tax break for the proposed Acteva Assisted Living Center came after one commissioner raised concerns about providing tax incentives that were more lucrative for new businesses than the incentive guidelines in the city’s economic development policy. The tax exemption would total more than $640,000 during the five-year period.

(Photo by Matt Bunk) Mandan City Commissioner Tom Jackson raised concerns about providing tax breaks to a company that wants to build an assisted-living community in Mandan.

Commissioners Dot Frank and Tom Jackson voted against the proposal.

“My concern is we set a policy, and the first opportunity that arises we break the policy,” Jackson said.

“I understand bringing businesses brings jobs into the community, but I think we have an obligation to our taxpayers, too. Taxes are a payment to a city for services, fundamentally. This is a particular type of business that may need more services than usual.”

But supporters of the assisted-living community said it’s more important for Mandan residents to have a choice to stay in the city as they grow old.

“This community is super important for keeping that older generation in the community,” said Ellen Huber, Mandan’s business development director. “People are staying in their homes longer than they should, which is putting their health and safety at risk because they do not want to go to Bismarck. Or they enter the nursing home before they need to.”

Mandan has nursing homes, but the Acteva Assisted Living Center would provide several levels of care for people 55 and older who may not need constant supervision. The facility would cater to people with memory problems who are not yet ready for the nursing home, people who need help with some aspects of health care, people who want to live in a community but remain completely independent, and people who would live in their own homes on the campus.

Bismarck has five assisted-living communities.

“This is exactly what the community direly needs.” Mandan Mayor Tim Helbling said. “I can’t believe how many elderly people have told me ‘We need this to happen, we’ve lived here all our life, we don’t want to move to Bismarck if we have the choice.’”

A study conducted by ICON Development Group, which is the company behind the Acteva proposal, showed that more than 700 Morton County residents are ready to move into an assisted-living community immediately. They also discovered that many people would rather live in Mandan than go to similar communities in Bismarck.

“We want the residents of Mandan to select this first before they go across the river,” said Kirk Simet, a representative of the ICON Development Group. “That’s our whole goal.”

The Actevia Assisted Living Center would be built on 12th Avenue Northwest just east of the Mandan Middle School. The first phase of the project would cost about $7.5 million to build. It would be 57,000 square feet and include 50 residential units, a salon and a game room.

Later phases of the project would include new wings to the building, possibly as early as three years into the project, and town homes. The total cost of the project would be between $20 million and $25 million, according to plans submitted to the city.

Simet said he expects to create 20 full-time jobs and another six part time jobs within five years. Acteva is newly founded, but Simet said he has experience opening 13 similar assisted-living communities across the Great Plains region.

Helbling and Commissioners Sandy Tibke and Dennis Rohr said the project was important to the city and would provide long term benefits such as jobs, additional economic development opportunities and a greater tax base after the exemption expires.

The 100-percent, five-year tax exemption for the Acteva Assisted Living Center strays from a recent policy adopted by the city that outlines graduated incentives that diminish on an annual scale. The policy set forth a 100-percent exemption for the first two years, a 75-percent exemption the third year, a 50-percent exemption the fourth year and a 25-percent exemption in the fifth year.

“This is just a win-win for the city,” Helbling said. “If they make a profit, they want to reinvest. I hope they make a million the first year and fill it up the first year. It is exactly what we need. If we don’t start taking these bold steps we are going to wind up with a greater tax disparity than we already have and we’ll never catch up.”

Tibke said: “I think of this as a long term investment.”

Simet said it will be possible to break ground on the project this year.

-Eric McCommon is a freelance writer for the Great Plains Examiner.

 

 

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