Local leaders on Monday are expected to give the Knox County
Commission a resolution that asks the board to set aside $1.5 million to
help the Regal Entertainment Group relocate its corporate headquarters
from the Halls Community to the South Knoxville waterfront.
The monthly non-voting work session is set for 5 p.m. Monday in the Main Assembly Room at the City County Building.
The
proposal is not currently on the board's agenda, which was released
publicly Thursday afternoon. It will be added before the meeting starts.
"There
will be something before commission to pass without recommendation,"
said commission Chairman Dave Wright. "I do not expect any discussion."
Wright added: "The real conversation, though, is that we're talking about jobs and we don't want them to leave Knox County."
The commission will then vote on the proposal during its Oct. 26 meeting.
At issue is a proposed plan that entails
the city buying back the building that’s still standing just west of
the Gay Street Bridge at the development site of the old Baptist
Hospital, and then leasing it back to Regal.
The plan calls for
the county to pay $1.5 million, the state to chip in another $1.5
million and the city to put in upwards of $10 million to help keep the
headquarters of the nation’s largest theater chain in East Tennessee,
multiple sources confirmed to WBIR 10News on Friday. The plan also will
include additional tax incentives.
Tennova Healthcare initially sold the site to Georgia-based developer Blanchard and Calhoun for $6.25 million.
The
city supported the project by securing an Environmental Protection
Agency brownfield remediation grant, and through a $22 million tax
increment financing, or TIF, package.
In addition, multiple
sources told WBIR that Gov. Bill Haslam and Randy Boyd, the state's
commissioner of economic and community development, will be in Knoxville
late next week to hold a press conference that details the overall
proposal to relocate the Regal headquarters.
Sources also have
told WBIR that the City Council will then talk more about the proposal
during its meeting at the end of the month.
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