BENTONVILLE, AR - Wal-Mart has current plans to open a new warehouse and distribution facility in Polk County, Florida.
According to The Ledger, the retailer plans to invest $206.8 million into the project, occupying about 188 acres of space and providing over 600 jobs for the area.
The county commission was scheduled to have a hearing earlier this week to vote on a tax incentive planned for the move, which would give Wal-Mart a 10-year, $12.4 million property tax break under the area's economic development tax break ordinance.
"That's a heck of an incentive," Commissioner Todd Dantzler said, according to The Ledger’s report, during Monday's agenda study session. "I just wonder at some point whether we need to get something [in tax revenue] out of it."
The incentive is based on Wal-Mart’s large investment plan, granting the corporation a 100 percent tax break for what the facility could bring to the area.
"This will be a magnet for the whole area," Paul Senft, a Business Consultant for Haines City, told The Ledger. "You're within a 2 1/2- hour drive of 13 million of Florida's 19 million residents.”
The completion of the buildings are expected by the end of 2016. According to the report, if the approval goes through the tax incentives will initiate in 2017.
Final approval for the matter is currently scheduled for August 18th, needing a yes vote from a super majority of the commission in order to go through.
