The EDGE Board had a packed agenda today as it approved various projects in Memphis and Shelby County. K.T.G. (USA) Inc. is a Delaware-based company that received approval for a six-year Jobs PILOT. It will invest almost $21.8 million in the project, retain 505 existing Memphis employees, and create 36 net new jobs with an average wage of $54,000.
KTG is a division of Kruger Group. Kruger is a Canadian-based tissue manufacturer with nine North American plants, 2,700 employees, and $1.2 billion in annual sales. It produces White Cloud and another contract, private label tissue paper brands. KTG’s Memphis operation has experienced tremendous growth over the last decade. The company plans to modernize by adding new paper converting equipment. This new converting asset is necessary to grow with existing customers and secure new customer contracts.
Over the last 20 years, the company has expanded multiple times, adding new equipment, a new paper machine, new production lines, and hundreds of employees. KTG has benefited from past PILOTs. It has repeatedly exceeded its commitments to capital investment, job creation, wages, and diversity spending.
A development coming to the Shelby Farms area was also approved for a bond inducement. Parkside at Shelby Farms, LLC is a proposed project to develop approximately 60 acres of undeveloped land located at the intersection of Mullins Station and Whitten Road, and a 2018 TIF was approved for the project. Parkside will be developed into a new mixed-use community of residential, retail, office, and hotel. Proceeds from the sale of the bonds will go toward the cost of the project. Parkside has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other issues. The Board voted to amend the TIF Development Agreement to give the project more time.
The EDGE Board also approved an extension amendment for the Link Apartments on Broad Avenue. Grubb Properties was green-lighted to build approximately 350 apartments on Broad Avenue. A 15-year residential PILOT for the complex was approved in March 2020 as the pandemic shut down many businesses. The amended and restated term sheet defines the total number of apartment units as 370 and the capital investment as $71,500,000. It sets 74 as the required number of low and moderate-income units and requires local business participation spend of $14,770,315.
Also, due to the pandemic and related market uncertainties, material availability issues, and labor constraints, the project start date was delayed. The amended and restated term sheet extends the closing deadline to February 28, 2023. Another amendment on today’s agenda dates back to a project that began in November 2019. Arlington Memphis, LLC dba Velo at Shelby Farms has 267 new apartments and costs $37.6 million Two years ago, the EDGE Board approved Velo for a Sewer Capacity Management PILOT. The PILOT offsets the cost of installing offsite wastewater storage and pumping station, required due to the City’s sewer system constraints. This is a two-year, city-only PILOT.
The Board’s current Sewer Capacity Management PILOT policies and procedures required Velo to close on the PILOT on or before November 30, 2021. Because of circumstances surrounding the project, Velo requested and was granted an extension of time to close its real property Sewer PILOT.