By ROB DOWDY, Shelbyville News staff writer
The Shelbyville Common Council Monday night approved a request made by local attorney Lee McNeely for a property tax abatement to build two wings of rental office space connected to the proposed conference center in Intelliplex Park.
The estimated cost of the new building with improvements will be $3 million, and an additional one to five employees will be added after construction of the building.
The tax abatement will ease the tax burden on the property over a 10-year period. According to McNeely, the average taxes paid during the first five years of a tax abatement equal about 50 percent of the taxes otherwise paid on the property without an abatement.
“Then you pay 100 percent (of the taxes) for all eternity after that,” he said, adding, “We will be paying taxes, new taxes that have never been paid before. It’s just a reduction over the 10-year period.”
Construction on the property, located at 2150 Intelliplex Drive, is scheduled to begin in December and be completed by August.
McNeely made the tax abatement request on behalf of SMR Ventures LLC, a company co-created by McNeely along with Michael Stephenson of McNeely, Stephenson, Thopy and Harrold law offices and other individuals solely for this project.
The measure passed by a vote of 6-0, with Mayor Scott Furgeson and Councilman Rob Nolley abstaining from the vote. Both men excused themselves from proceedings and left the room before the council began discussion.
Furgeson left because his relationship with his father-in-law, McNeely, could be perceived as a conflict of interest.
“(The city is) building their building. We’re building our building. They’re adjacent to one another,” McNeely said, adding that Nolley left because he may rent office space in the new building.
The two wings of the building would total 32,000 square feet, with McNeely, Stephenson, Thopy and Harrold using only 12,000 square feet. A doctor’s office will take up an additional 8,000 square feet, with other businesses leasing the remaining spaces. McNeely said he is already in talks with companies looking to relocate to the property.
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