Wixom council approves four-year tax abatement for Quality Engineering’s planned 85,500 sq ft facility

The Wixom City Council on May 12 approved establishing an industrial development district at 29837 South Wixom Road and adopted a four-year industrial facilities tax-exemption certificate for Quality Engineering Company, which proposes an 85,500-square-foot office/warehouse/manufacturing facility and a $13.4 million investment.

Assistant City Manager Benson told council the request is the second step in the state process under Public Act 198 of 1974. “The project they proposed is to build an 85,500 ft light industrial — I’ll call it an office, warehousing, manufacturing facility,” Benson said, adding the company plans to consolidate its Wixom and Brighton operations into the new site. Benson said the tax-review committee recommended a four-year exemption even though the applicant initially requested 12 years.

Benson and staff presented projected local impacts and the city’s analysis of forgone revenue: the city estimated it would forego approximately $44,000 of newly created local tax revenue in a full 12-year scenario and that the applicant would receive about $630,000 in tax savings over that longer term. Benson also explained the parcel sits inside a former Ford brownfield and that tax capture by the brownfield authority will affect timing of when the city receives new revenue.

Quality Engineering President Bill Uridano introduced the company and confirmed the firm’s staffing and investment plans. Benson described the applicant’s staffing proposal as consolidating “between 25 and 30 direct employees, three to four contract employees, and two to three seasonal employees,” and said the proposed agreement requires no fewer than 24 jobs in year one and 27 jobs within three years.

Council members asked about the company’s comfort with the recommended four-year term; Uridano told council the company was agreeable. Following questions on brownfield timing and job definitions, the council voted to adopt the four-year industrial facilities exemption certificate and authorized the mayor to execute a tax-abatement agreement with Quality Engineering Company as recommended by the Tax Abatement Review Committee.

Next steps for the project include final site-plan permitting, permitting coordination with the brownfield authority, and any required state approvals for additional education-tax abatements (Benson said none was requested on the table). The city’s staff memo and council discussion noted that while abatements reduce mills paid on new taxable value by roughly half, in development-on-vacant-parcel scenarios the net tax revenue to local jurisdictions typically increases compared with leaving property undeveloped.