Southern Park Mall may tax new employees to pay for redevelopment

BOARDMAN — New Southern Park Mall employees may be subject to an income tax to help pay for the mall's redevelopment, despite Washington Prime Group's claim that the project would not result in raised taxes for Boardman residents.

At a news conference Dec. 5, Washington Prime Group VP of Real Estate Development Matt Jurkowitz said, "No resident in Boardman or Mahoning County will be asked to pay a single dollar of new tax as a result of the approval of the proposed incentives."

On Dec. 11, WKBN reported that Washington Prime Group is requesting a Joint Economic Development District, which would levy an income tax on the mall's new employees.

Mall officials have since clarified that Jurkowitz was referring to property taxes, as they noted in their original news release.

Multiple Boardman residents used Friday's Coffee and Conversation at the Southern Park Mall to ask about the potential tax.

"Minimum wage workers are going to be taxed to pay for the mall," said Boardman resident Ashley Rae. "I don't even work at the mall, and I'm really upset about it."

A JEDD is an arrangement between two communities and company to levy an income tax to hep pay for development. Townships are not capable of levying income taxes otherwise.

Washington Prime Group announced it would invest $30 million in the mall. With the incentive package, the company would recover about $6 million.

If the arrangement works out, employees of the redeveloped part of the mall would pay about 2 percent of their income. The mall's current employees would not be affected.

Boardman township administrator Jason Loree said that Boardman has reached out to Struthers to be a partner in the JEDD. Struthers Terry Mayor Stocker did not respond to a request for comment.

Loree sees the income tax as a compromise for bringing new jobs to the area.

"We don't want to see the mall become a ghost town," said Loree.

Of the economic development tools the company is requesting, the JEDD would likely provide the smallest amount of money, Loree said.

The JEDD is by no means a done deal.

"We need to make sure the agreement is in the best interest of all parties," said Loree.

This story was originally published December 16, 2019 at 5:53 AM with the headline "Southern Park Mall may tax new employees to pay for redevelopment."