BRENHAM CITY COUNCIL TO VOTE ON CREATING REINVESTMENT ZONE FOR DEL SOL FOOD CO.
The Brenham City Council will meet Thursday to potentially approve the creation of a reinvestment zone for a local company seeking to expand.
Del Sol Food Company, the maker of BRIANNAS Fine Salad Dressing, is requesting the zone for commercial tax phase-in incentive. Following a public hearing, the council will vote on whether to designate 29.153 acres at 3015 and 3151 South Blue Bell Road as qualifying for tax phase-in.
According to the council agenda packet, Del Sol is looking to build out its facility to house a bakery division in order to increase the amount of capacity for its non-salad dressing product lines and purchase equipment to enhance automation. The company has over 80 associates employed full-time and estimates the total capital investment of this project at $14 million.
Next for the council will be a work session to receive the Visit Brenham Washington County Destination Marketing Organization’s first quarter report for the current fiscal year.
That will be followed by an executive session, where several items will be discussed: the Brenham Police Department’s operations and personnel; a demand letter received by the city; the possible purchase, exchange or acquisition of real property for sanitary sewer improvements and facilities; and Brenham Municipal Airport operations and services. No action is slated to be taken.
The council will meet Thursday at 1 p.m. at Brenham City Hall.
Click here to view the agenda packet for Thursday's meeting.
Trying to understand the impact of this zone. Yes, a company will invest $14M but there is no mention of how much exactly in tax “phase in” there is going to be. At a time that the City has raised rates for water due to the inability to pay for infrastructure improvements based on current tax collection-they are now giving away (or delaying) tax payments. Is this company suffering from an economic downturn that would, sans this zone, prevent them from continuing with the explosion? How many more jobs will this expansion bring to the area? And are these jobs decent paying or are they minimum wage? Yet at the same time-we are hearing that property tax increase are out of their hands. Maybe if they would not give out free passes…those of us who live and work here would not be forced to bear the burden of an already successful company getting a break that homeowners cannot take advantage of.