High Point reviews expired targeted-investment incentive policy; staff reports $2.42M in grants produced roughly $5.1M pledged investment

High Point development staff on Tuesday reviewed the city’s Targeted Investment Areas Incentive Policy and reported results from the program’s most recent cycle while answering council questions about next steps after the policy expired June 30.

“At no time would staff propose to council an incentive award that does not pay itself back over at maximum a 7 year period of time,” Peter Bishop, the city’s development director, told the council. Bishop described how staff evaluates applications, verifies job creation and capital investment, and structures performance-based grants with clawback provisions.

Bishop said a version of the incentive program has been in effect in various forms since about 2015 and was expanded in 2020 to include rental reimbursement, job-creation incentives and building renovation grants aimed at supporting downtown redevelopment and, beginning in 2023, the West Green Drive area. Eligibility typically required at least a 25% increase in assessed value for real and personal property, creation of at least 10 jobs, and wages at or above 60% of the Guilford County average annual salary (Bishop said 60% of the current county average annual salary is $60,195). Incentives are structured as performance grants paid after a project meets benchmarks; staff works with the Guilford County tax assessor to confirm taxable value increases.

Since the 2020 update to the policy, Bishop said seven projects in the downtown investment area received grants, listing Rud Fleet, Dive Bar, Key Risk, Icolts, Coral Banker Advantage, iHeartRadio and Nomad Line Works. He said the city provided about $2,420,000 in grants to those seven projects; the contractually pledged capital investment was $5,100,000 and the program produced about 231 full‑time jobs. Bishop cited a prior consultant economic-impact analysis that estimated an $18,170,000 combined direct, indirect and induced impact and more than $1 million in fiscal direct impact (property, sales and excise tax generation) in a single year from those projects.

Bishop emphasized that staff does not issue incentive dollars up front: grants are paid only after projects show invoices, payroll records and tax-assessor confirmation. He also noted that, based on his review of comparable programs, no other community the city researched offered rental-reimbursement incentives in any form; High Point’s program had included a rental reimbursement component that was reduced over time from initially generous levels to lower tiers in later program updates.

Council members asked whether applications are pending and whether the council could simply extend the policy. Bishop said one application had been submitted for West Green and another for the downtown area before the June 30 sunset, so two applications were pending. He said statute allows incentives to be paid over up to 10 years but council had previously directed staff to limit awards to a three- to seven-year payback; staff therefore used a three- to seven-year horizon for evaluation. Bishop also explained that incentive awards require public hearings at the time a specific project contract comes before council.

Council discussion touched on whether to extend the expired policy immediately or allow staff time to propose changes; one council member said she favored a one-year extension to support continued growth and to wait for rezoning actions in the Southwest Veil District that could affect development patterns. Bishop recommended that if council wished to continue the program without changes it could extend the existing policy for another year and then consider amendments later.

No action to extend or reauthorize the policy was taken at the special meeting; staff said council could add an extension to a future agenda or take action at the outset of a meeting if council wished to do so.