Sketch courtesy of city of Vestavia Hills
Edgar's Bakery plans to build a new location at 3101 Timberlakje Road in Vestavia Hills, Alabama.
The Vestavia Hills City Council on Monday approved up to $275,000 in sales tax rebates to Edgar’s Old-Style Bakery in exchange for the company relocating its bakery at the Colonnade to a spot in Vestavia Hills about a mile away.
Edgar’s in December paid $1.2 million for a residential lot at 3101 Timberlake Road, off Cahaba River Road across from Slice Pizza, and had the property rezoned for business use in January, according to a memo from City Manager Jeff Downes to the Vestavia Hills City Council.
The bakery company has a lease at the Colonnade that’s good through 2029 but wants to relocate to Timberlake Road as soon as possible and begin operating in Vestavia Hills, Downes said.
Edgar’s plans to spend a total of $3.95 million for the land and construction of the new bakery and needs a financial incentive to make the project more feasible from a cost perspective, Downes said.
The council agreed to provide a rebate of about 47% of non-educational retail sales taxes for up to six years, but not to exceed $275,000. Edgar’s expects to have $2.75 million in annual sales at the new location and should generate more than $920,000 for the city over six years in revenues from all taxes and fees, Downes said.
That means the city should actually recoup the sales tax rebate amount in 2½ years thanks to the new tax revenue coming into the city and get a total return on investment of $649,000, he said.
The City Council voted unanimously in favor of the tax rebate with no spoken opposition from the public.
In other business Monday, the City Council:
- Completed the annexation of residential properties at 2811 Acton Place, 2941 Old Rocky Ridge Road and 2656 Alta Vista Drive
- Rezoned .65 acres at 3119 Timberlake Road from an R-1 low-density residential district to an O-1 office park district for the purpose of adding a two-story, 8,600-square-foot building. The new office building is planned to tie into an existing office park that already contains five other buildings, according to plans submitted to the city.
- Renewed an agreement for the Neumo Group to continue assisting the city with collection of business license tax revenues
- Authorized the city manager to sell or dispose of six old police vehicles (three 2021 Ford Explorers, a 2013 Ford F-150 truck, a 2019 F-150 truck and a 2017 Ford Expedition) that are being replaced with new vehicles
- Adopted a new policy regarding the use of artificial intelligence with the goal of ensuring that any usage of artificial intelligence is done in an ethical, transparent and accountable way. The policy can be seen in its entirety at the end of the City Council May 4 agenda package here.
- Recognized May 3-9 as Profeesional Municipal Clerks Week, May 10-16 as National Police Week and May 15 as Peace Officers Memorial Day
