Subsidies proposed for shopping mall

• Share on
• 
• 
• 
• 

Should the Summit Mall in Wheatfield enjoy a third round of taxpayer subsidies?

The Niagara County Industrial Development Agency will consider a proposal Wednesday from a Toronto developer that calls for about $700,000 in property and sales tax breaks. The subsidies would go towards a $17 million renovation of the mall, which now stands largely vacant.

State law generally prohibits industrial development agencies from granting tax breaks to retail projects, but the developer is contending its proposed mix of tenants would attract visitors from outside the region.

Previous mall developers received about $2 million in tax breaks.

Jim Heaney and Charlotte Keith report on the proposal on WGRZ. We’ll follow with post-meeting coverage Wednesday on both WGRZ and InvestigativePost.org.