E-Malt.com News article: USA, MI: Founders Brewing gets a 12 year tax break from Grand Rapids city commissioners

Grand Rapids city commissioners agreed to award the Canal Street Brewing Co. a 12 year industrial tax abatement that will save the company almost $36,000 a year on its $6-mln expansion of Founders Brewing Co., grbj.com reported on December, 4.

Mike Stevens and Dave Engbers, owners of Canal Street Brewing, are investing $1 mln into real property and $5 mln into personal property, namely production equipment, for the project. They’re getting set to expand Founders Brewing by an additional 9,000 square feet, which would give them space to brew up to another 165,000 barrels annually. Stevens and Engbers hope to get construction completed by March.

Founders began distributing its products to Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut and New York this past summer.

“When the Grand Rapids Art Museum features its next history of beer, it will prominently feature Founders Brewing,” Mayor George Heartwell said.

The tax exemption commissioners granted, which amounts to roughly $430,000 over its lifespan, will serve as a match for $2 mln in financial assistance Canal Street Brewing has requested from the Michigan Economic Development Corp. The state considers beer making as a manufacturing industry, which qualifies brewers for an industrial tax break.

The city will lose $12,635 in property-tax revenue each year for a dozen years from the exemption but will gain an estimated $8,570 annually in new income-tax revenue from its action.


05 December, 2012