Georgia town mulls ideas to aid failing centers
Town administrators in Newnan, Georgia, have proposed offering incentives to owners of local shopping centers to re-invigorate them.
Municipal staff this week invited a group of community leaders to brainstorm about what could be done with the number of dilapidated centers in Newnan. Obstacles preventing owners from re-investing, the group said, included lack of cash flow, fear of selling due to capital gains taxes, and a reluctance to invest until neighboring properties improved.
No decisions were made, but an opinion piece in the Newnan Times-Herald posed that incentives such as property tax abatements, streetscaping, locating a police precinct nearby a center, or committing to lease space for a city agency.
“The city has its own reasons for upgrading these properties,” read the editorial. “Increased property values means increased property tax revenue, and not just for the city but also for the school system.”
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