Marquette approves 30-year extension of downtown TIF and 5% revenue-sharing with DDA

The Marquette City Commission voted 7-0 on Aug. 11 to approve Downtown Development Authority (DDA) Tax Increment Financing Plan No. 5 — extending the DDA's TIF district expiration to Feb. 2054 — and to authorize a companion revenue-sharing agreement that gives the city 5% of the DDA’s gross TIF revenue each year.

The revenue-sharing agreement requires a mandatory review every five years; the city staff estimated the city's share in the first year at about $63,000 and projected a conservative total value of roughly $2,893,580 over the life of the agreement. The approvals passed by roll call votes of all seven commissioners.

City staff introduced the TIF extension as a tool to provide time and bonding capacity for a long list of downtown capital projects identified in the downtown plan adopted in November 2020. Tara, the DDA director, told commissioners the DDA’s project list totals about $42,000,000 and said, “Being able to actually, you know, see those come to fruition, we do need a sizable amount of time to be able to do that.” She described priority projects including the Berghast Street improvement (estimated about $7.5 million), Third Street connections (about…