FRESC Questions TIF Benefits

Others that came under FRESC's spotlight--the group has ties to labor union groups and grassroots neighborhood organizations--include public-private partnerships such as the Denver Pavilions, Adam's Mark Hotel, Broadway Marketplace, the Denver Dry and the REI flagship store. City officials reacted quickly and negatively to the report.

"I compare this report to listing how much money you spent on food and then acting like you left all of your bags of groceries in the store," instead of going home to prepare a feast, John Huggins, economic development director for the city, tells GlobeSt.com. Huggins claims the group, for its own motives, takes a very negative and narrow view of the city's and the Denver Urban Renewal Authority's use of TIFs.

"The city used TIFs just the way it should," Huggins tells GlobeSt.com.He notes that about a decade ago, the city used TIFs and other public financing for almost 100% of the Denver Dry building, which saved a historic building in the heart of Downtown. Now, there are at least three major hotels either planned or under development that have no public subsidies at all, Huggins tells GlobeSt.com.

Chris Nevitt, executive director of FRESC, however, argues that his group isn't anti-TIF. It just wants the city to be more accountable. "I guess that the key point is that tax increment financing is an expenditure--it is a public expense--and it is growing rapidly," Nevitt tells GlobeSt.com. "We think there its use needs to be transparent and accountable to the public. Currently, it is not transparent and it is not very accountable."

He says it was extremely difficult to gather the information for its 32-page report, especially since it received almost no cooperation from the city and DURA. However, Nevitt says his group doesn't wanted TIFs eliminated.

"In our recommendations, we are not opposed to TIFs; I think TIFs are great," Nevitt says. "I think they are a powerful and useful tool and the city probably needs to be using more TIFs. The question is, what are we getting for the investment? Are we getting our money's worth? Is a half billion too much? We don't know. But we think the city needs to be accountable."

Future studies by the group will look at things such as how much the private partners with the city are making from the investments and the quality of jobs created by TIFs, he says.