Kendall County Commissioners will soon weigh in on a request for creating a tax increment reinvestment zone (TIRZ) on 17 acres of land owned by Bandera Electric Cooperative.
BEC officials explained their Kendall County operations and the reasons for the TIRZ request to the Kendall County Commission during a public hearing at its Nov. 13 meeting.
If approved, the TIRZ – only the second in the county – would call for a seven-year abatement averaging 40 percent on the taxes assigned to the property.
Becky Bradburn, CFO for Bandera Electric Cooperative, told commissioners they expect to make about a $10 million investment on the property in the coming years.
In 2019, BEC acquired the property, the former Smittyville property along FM 289.
“We’ve already built a network operations center, which houses our fiber team,” Bradburn said. “In 2017 we added the broadband business. What we’ve built there already takes care of those employees and we have 27 employees at this location, with plans to add an additional 50 employees.”
TIRZs are used as forms of tax increment financing, which is an economic development tool to incentivize both development and redevelopment. The TIRZ establishes a “base tax value” for a designated geographic area when the zone is created.
Once that base tax value is established, a TIRZ reallocates some or all of the additional ad valorem property taxes in the zone.
The county would record the sum of the ad valorem property tax at the time of the TIRZ creation, for the properties within that zone. Each year, within the TIRZ, the property taxes collected up to that “base tax value” would go to the county.
But as properties in the TIRZ develop and increase in value, property taxes collected over and above that “base tax value” number go directly into a TIRZ fund.
Those TIRZ property taxes can only be used within the TIRZ, and can be used for infrastructure, façade programs, landscaping, streetscaping, or any type of public enhancements to the zone.
In 2019, BEC acquired the property, the former Smittyville property along FM 289.
“We’ve already built a network operations center, which houses our fiber team,” Bradburn said. “In 2017 we added the broadband business. What we’ve built there already takes care of those employees and we have 27 employees at this location, with plans to add an additional 50 employees.”
Bandera Electric has built the network operations center, updated a small building by its front gate, and refurbished what used to be a butterfly habitat structure.
Future plans, she said, include an administrative building, a fueling station for its fleet of trucks, a mechanic shop and some additional warehousing there.
The plans include building an outdoor pavilion that will be made available to the community – about a $10 million investment, she said.
With the anticipated 50 new hires, Precinct 2 Commissioner Andra Wisian asked about the possibility of drawing local talent to fill those spots.
“That’s part of why we are opening here in the Boerne area, to draw,” Bradburn said. “It's hard to get people to come to the Bandera area, so that’s the reason for the admin building here, so we can hopefully draw in local talent.”
Bandera Electric Cooperative is a nonprofit electric cooperative established in 1935. “All of our income is given back to our members. In order to maintain low electric rates, we are asking for this reinvestment opportunity,” Bradburn said.
In the past three years, she said, Bandera Electric has donated over $300,000 in Kendall County alone.
Commission counsel said action on the TIRZ would likely come sometime in July of 2024. The county’s existing TIRZ guidelines expire in 2024 but would carry forward if the Bandera Electric TIRZ is approved.
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