St. Joseph City Commissioners have granted a tax abatement to a pet food manufacturer moving into a building at 211 Kerth Street. If that sounds familiar, that’s because commissioners already did so in July, but then had to redo it Monday night.
In July, the city commission approved an Industrial Facilities Exemption for Clark Logic, the owner of the building that was planning to lease it to the pet food maker. However, at a Monday meeting, Cornerstone Alliance Community Development Director Zachary Vaughn told commissioners the abatement should have been granted to the end user, or the manufacturer, and not the building owner.
“The state let us know to rectify this, we would need to rescind the application under Clark Logic, and we need the end user, which would be the Peterson Company, to apply for said abatement,” Vaughn said.
The Peterson Company is the pet food maker. It was planning to work with Stevensville-based Blendco on the project.
Peterson’s Matthew Burian said they’re excited to have a St. Joseph location.
“We are in the business of manufacturing pet food ingredients, been in operation in the state of Michigan since 1947, and are happy to expand in this,” Burian said.
Commissioners were asked to approve a new tax abatement, freezing the value of the building at its current $215,000. That will enable Clark to recoup its nearly $2 million investment in improvements to the facility.
Commissioners Monday debated how long the abatement should be in place, and opted for seven years, the length of Peterson’s lease.
Renovations being done to the building are expected to be done by the end of the year.
