Should the public pay to help retrofit downtown's skyscrapers and buildings?
Invest Atlanta OKs making $8 million available to help make private buildings more energy-efficient
The board members of Invest Atlanta, the city's economic development arm, OKed a program this morning that would allow owners of private buildings in downtown to tap up to $8 million in public cash to make their buildings more green.
The incentive-based program is part of the Atlanta Better Buildings Challenge, a voluntary effort based on the Better Building Initiative launched last February by President Barack Obama to make the country's buildings more energy efficient. Atlanta's set a goal to make commercial office buildings 20 percent more efficient by 2020 - and by doing so, attract more tenants and new businesses to the area.
Under the rough guidelines we came across (PDF), private property owners can apply to use the grants to conduct energy audits of their buildings. Invest Atlanta will then invite owners to apply for additional grant funding to "complete specific energy and water efficient upgrades identified in the audit." Property owners would have some skin in the game and be required to provide "at least 60" percent of the project's cost to receive the public cash. The Invest Atlanta board would still have to approve requests for the public funding.
Cash for the program comes from the Westside Tax Allocation District, or TAD. TADs are complex redevelopment tools that issue bonds to incentivize developers to build in what are supposed to be "blighted" areas. The debt is paid off with future property tax revenues in that area. A TAD helped transform a former steel supply company and brownfield into Atlantic Station. More than half of the Atlanta Beltline's funding will be generated by a TAD that borders the 22-mile loop.
The Westside TAD was created in 1992 and includes such impoverished neighborhoods as Vine City and English Avenue. Its area was expanded in 1998 to include downtown, which has allowed projects such as the World of Coca-Cola, the Glenn Hotel, Allen Plaza, and other buildings to benefit from the TAD funding. According to a 2012 audit, the financial tool's been a "tremendous success." Apparently there's enough cash to offer incentive programs such as what the Invest Atlanta board approved this morning.