[3/25/03]Supervisors gave their OK Monday for Warren County to share in a plan to add $1.1 million in tax incentives to an expansion planned at Vicksburg Factory Outlets, 4000 S. Frontage Road.

No one appeared at the required public hearing, and no other objections were received. Vicksburg officials were to hear the matter today.

Margaret Gilmer, outlet center manager, has said nine shops will be built on eight acres west of the current center, and they will include Vanity Fair, Rack Room Shoes, a new Osh Kosh B’Gosh, a children’s recreation complex, a new linen store, a new housewares store and two new apparel stores. The private investment is $8.4 million.

Vicksburg Factory Outlets, which opened with 27 stores and now operates 30, was opened in 1995 with the help of tax increment financing, which is being sought again.

“The history of the project stands on its own,” Gilmer said. “We took a large piece of non-productive real estate and we created a great project. I think with us growing another 80,000 square feet, you are going to see we are able to draw shoppers from over a greater distance.”

Governments can use TIF as a tool to encourage certain types of developments. In the program, property taxes and other taxes that increase as a result of development can be pledged to repay bonds issued to help pay for infrastructure improvements.

In this case, the bonds for the outlet center will be used to fund drainage improvements, extending the access road and water and sewer work.

Other recent developments assisted by TIF include Ergon’s Home Depot-centered project, in which the county did not participate, the Horne Properties development centered by Wal-Mart, and River Region Medical Center, in which the City of Vicksburg did not participate.

The repayment of the $1.1 million TIF will be about $30,000 annually from taxes the county would have received from the development. The city’s share will be about $75,000 annually.

Other new taxes generated from the project will go into the city’s and county’s general funds. School taxes, which are not pledged in the TIF agreement, are also expected to increase $58,000 a year.

The outlet center project is expected to generate an additional $42,000 in real and personal property taxes to the county and $44,000 in real and personal property taxes and an additional $233,000 in sales taxes to the city. The project is expected to create 250 new full-time and part-time jobs with an annual payroll of $3.5 million.