Leah Ingram Eagle
Chelsea City Council 1/21/20
The Chelsea City Council at the Jan. 21 meeting
The city of Chelsea approved an economic development incentive package for Therachem Research Medilab to allow the company to expand in Chelsea during the Jan. 21 city council meeting.
The new facility will create 20 new full-time jobs with an average annual wage of $70,000, and also become the first tenant of the Chelsea Business Park.
Therachem’s CEO Dr. Poorand Chand is a Chelsea resident, leads the chemistry-driven global service provider for pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies that provides comprehensive solutions to support medicinal chemistry research and chemical process research and development.
Therachem’s research and development facility is located over 8,000 miles away from Chelsea in Jaipur, India, and has more than 100 employees. Therachem’s U.S. headquarters is currently located on Chesser Crane Road and has five employees.
A letter from Alabama Secretary of Commerce, Greg Canfield from Dec. 4 outlined incentives for Therachem offered through the Alabama Jobs Act. The state’s incentives include an annual cash rebate of 3 percent of the previous year’s gross payroll for eligible employees for 10 years, with a projected cash value of $475,682. The state will also grant an investment credit 1.5% of eligible capital investment in Alabama. The credit will be given over a 10-year period with an estimated value of $757,968. A construction sales/use tax abatement totaling $87,500 brings the total incentive package from the state to $1,351,754.
Shelby County’s incentives include a one time job credit valued at $14,000, along with sales/use tax abatement on construction materials valued at $10,938 and a 10-year property tax abatement valued at $65,584. The total incentive amount from the county is $90,522.
Therachem has previously purchased 1.07 acres on western end of the new Chelsea Business Park. The city is gifting them a land donation of 0.93 acres to give them a total of 2 acres.
“The plan is to build a new facility on one acre and have another acre to have a second building as the company grows,” said Mayor Tony Picklesimer. The city is also donating $7,700 in infrastructure assistance to help with utility connection and a 75% tax credit for the taxes paid on construction materials that has to be used up by 2022 and 75% of furniture and fixture taxes generated. The Estimated value of city incentive is $230,000.
The project will see an investment of $5,053,122 in total value.
In other council business, the council approved to authorize the execution of contracts for tax audit and business license collection services. The company, HDL, is an auditing service that finds businesses operating without a business license.
The contract is for three years and HDL will retain 45 percent of what they find for 39 months, and the city will keep 55 percent. After the contract is up, the city gets to keep all the money.
Over $24,000 of Nick Grant funds was approved to Chelsea Park Elementary School. The funds were for 75 Chromebooks (40 for kindergarten and 35 for first grade) and a SMART board and supplies for the conference room.
A resolution was also approved for the city to assume responsibility for the streets in Polo Crossings (Phase 3 & 4) now that the developer has brought the road up to city standards.
Other resolutions include:
- approval for a rezoning request from TCG Chelsea Ares for 10.62 acres of their property from E-1 (Single Family District) to PRD (Planned Residential District)
- approval to declare property in the Therachem package as surplus and authorize its transfer and conveyance.
- approval to pay the city’s bills.
Other items of note include:
- Bulk trash day will be Saturday, Jan. 25
- The census kicks off April 1
- Fire at the Foothills will be April 4 at City Hall and feature a BBQ contest and desert cook-off.
The next Chelsea City Council meeting will be Feb. 4 at Chelsea City Hall.
