St. Lucie County, Port St. Lucie approve temporary tax breaks for FedEx sorting center
FedEx is expected to receive some temporary tax breaks for bringing a $44 million, 245,000-square-foot regional sorting center to Tradition.
The County Commission Tuesday unanimously approved 10 years of decreasing property-tax exemptions for the global shipping giant.
Under the deal, the first five years would be tax free.
FedEx would then pay 10% of its county property tax in the sixth year, 20% in the seventh year, 40% in the eighth year, 60% in the ninth year and 80% in the 10th year.
Referendum: Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County asking voters to renew tax-abatement program Aug. 23
"This does not apply to school taxes, fire taxes or municipal taxes. It's just county taxes," said county attorney Dan McIntyre. "It only applies to the building, not the land."
This is a performance-based incentive, also known as an ad valorem tax-exemption, to encourage new construction, capital investment and job creation.
The county will be asking voters to renew the program for another 10 years at the Aug. 23 primary.
Before the incentive came to the county for review, the Port St. Lucie City Council unanimously approved it Monday.
The City Council is expected to take a final vote Aug. 22.
The sorting center is part of Sansone's 3.6-million-square-foot manufacturing and distribution complex, called Legacy Park, on 300 acres of city-owned land at Becker Road and Village Parkway along Interstate 95.
Packages coming into the facility are sorted by zip code as they move more than 540 feet per minute through a six-sided scanning tunnel that will capture 3D images to make sorting decisions in less than 450 milliseconds.
Olivia McKelvey is TCPalm's watchdog reporter for St. Lucie County. You can reach her at olivia.mckelvey@tcpalm.com, 772-521-4380 and on Twitter @olivia_mckelvey.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: FedEx gets temporary tax breaks from PSL and St. Lucie county
