Mentor Considering Expanding Community Reinvestment Area To Tyler, Twinbrook

The city of Mentor is looking into expanding a Community Reinvestment Area so it can benefit business and home owners along Tyler Boulevard and Twinbrook Road.

City Council can vote on the CRA expansion during its meeting at 7 p.m. tonight at City Hall.

CRAs are an economic tool that allow the city to offer tax abatements for building or expansion in a specific area.

The CRA that Council may vote to expand was established on Heisley Road between Hendricks Road and Progress Parkway in 1984. It was expanded in 1988 so it is now bounded by the city's border with Painesville Township, State Route 2, Hopkins Road and the Norfolk & Southern railroad line.

If Council votes to expand it again, it would also include the buildings along Tyler Boulevard from Hopkins Road to Center Street and Twinbrook Road.

The area's buildings are 87 percent industrial and 13 percent single-family homes, according to staff reports from the city of Mentor's economic development and business department.

Any buildings in the aforementioned CRA get 100 percent property-tax exemptions for five years on any new construction or expansions.

"We have businesses along Tyler that are considering some major expansions," said Tom Thielman, the city's economic development administrator. "And this is a good tool to possibly help them."

Both the agenda for the Mentor City Council meeting and the Council's staff reports regarding the proposed legislation are attached to this story as a PDF.