Two-hundred-and-six undeveloped acres hard by the Morgantown exit of the Pennsylvania Turnpike are ripe for development as a brand-new Keystone Opportunity Zone.
The KOZ designation is one of the state's major economic development tools and is credited with creating or retaining more than 43,000 jobs since its inception in 1999. Companies inside zones are eligible for tax reductions or abatements affecting an array of state, county and local taxes.
These include the PA corporate net income tax, capital stock and foreign franchise tax, personal income tax, sales and use tax for purchases consumed and used by zone businesses, mutual and thrift institution tax, bank and trust company shares tax and insurance premium tax. On the county and local side of the ledger, potential tax breaks include earned income and net profits and property taxes. Projects located in a KOZ are also given priority consideration for assistance under state community and economic development programs as well as community building initiatives.
The new KOZ at the New Morgan Business Center in tiny New Morgan Borough offers 10 years of tax breaks and is part of a much larger planned mixed-use development that will eventually include residential and commercial uses. The site is known locally as Grace Mines and is part of the old Bethlehem Steel mining operation, says Pamela Shupp, vice president at the Greater Reading Economic Partnership, which is charged with marketing the new KOZ. The Partnership is at work on electronic and print marketing materials and informing its network of site selectors and industrial real estate interests about “this brand new piece of inventory with all these incentives attached to it,” Shupp says.
The most likely prospects, she adds, are advanced manufacturers with needs for heavy infrastructure and highway access or corporate headquarters, who can benefit from the site's high visibility from the Turnpike.
Source: Pamela Shupp, Greater Reading Economic Partnership
Writer: Elise Vider