By Gary Lloyd
Some Trussville business owners plan to speak out at tonight’s Downtown Redevelopment Authority meeting at Trussville City Hall.
The meeting is at 7 p.m.
Rick Plourde, owner of Anytime Fitness on Main Street, will attend the meeting. Lord said he doesn’t believe potential sales tax abatements for a grocer and fitness center are right.
“I didn’t get any of that,” Plourde said of sales tax abatements.
Plourde said Performance Fitness owner Chris Lynch will attend the meeting, and representatives from the YMCA, CrossFit Trussville and possibly a local grocery store may attend the meeting.
Downtown Redevelopment Authority Chairman Jef Freeman said there is no sales tax abatement possibility for a potential fitness center to locate in part of the vacant Food World on Main Street. He said the fitness center didn’t ask for nor will receive any incentives to possibly locate in the shopping center.
The Trussville City Council would have to vote on any possible sales tax abatements.
Plourde said he doesn’t understand why the city doesn’t recruit businesses not already in Trussville. He said the possibility of a sales tax abatement is “just not right.”
“We’re all very, very nervous about it,” Plourde said. “We just want our side heard. We want to try to stop it.”
Retail Specialists, Inc. asked the Trussville City Council in May to consider abating a portion of city sales tax that would total $800,000 over a four-year period for a grocer to locate in a portion of the building.
The city has spent about $22,000 per month for rent on the building since leasing it in October 2011. The city spent $250,000 to end a 15-year lease with America’s Thrift Stores, which had planned to open a store there.
The Food World building has been vacant since 2010.
Contact Gary Lloyd at news@trussvilletribune.com and follow him on Twitter @GaryALloyd.