Officials in Port Wentworth this week moved ahead with initiatives aimed at developing the economy in their city.
On Thursday, the Port Wentworth City Council unanimously voted to establish a loan guaranty program with the Savannah-based Small Business Assistance Corporation, which they hope will promote rehabilitation of outdated commercial space downtown. They also voted unanimously to approve a contract with Okla.-based Retail Attractions LLC to recruit new retailers.
According to agenda documents, the city has already created a separate, $200,000 account to establish the loan guaranty pool. As part of the partnership approved Thursday, the SBAC would oversee the loan program and help to market it to prospective entrepreneurs.
City Manager Phillip Claxton said the loan program is modeled after a similar program in the city of Savannah. The loan would aid business owners — either tenants or property owners — in bringing these older commercial spaces up to modern building codes.
“A lot of those commercial spaces are not leasable without substantial improvements to bring them up to code,” Claxton said. “That’s the focus. Somebody would have to go in and do extensive rehab work just to use them.”
Meanwhile, the contract with the retail recruiter will cost the city $72,000 during the next fiscal year, an amount the city has budgeted for.
Attracting new and diverse businesses was a priority of the council’s economic development program, according to information provided with the council’s agenda. Claxton said the firm will study the existing conditions in Port Wentworth, then identify the companies that would best fill in the gaps.
In a proposal letter penned to city officials April 17, Retail Attractions Principal Rickey Hayes wrote that his firm has the contacts needed to bring these desired retailers to Port Wentworth.
“Growing the retail base, stopping retail leakage and improving the overall quality of life in a city requires more than data, more than reports and more than marketing. It requires relationships,” Hayes said in the letter. “We have them and
are prepared to put them to work for your city.”
The city manager said Port Wentworth is wasting no time in getting these initiatives started. The city has already made contact with developers not currently operating in the area, he said, and is identifying properties to promote.
“It’s a very targeted, strategic effort to match specific properties with specific developers,” he said.
A third aspect of the city’s economic development efforts, the annual contract for tourism promotion with the Port Wentworth Chamber of Commerce, was also unanimously approved Thursday.
In other business:
• The council set Port Wentworth’s 2015 millage rate at 4.571. This roll-back rate will actually boost the city’s property tax revenue, said City Councilman Tim Holbrook, because of increasing property values.
• Council members adopted a $14.6 million budget for fiscal year 2016, which begins July 1. The council also adopted a special purpose local option sales tax budget of more than $1 million.
• The council appointed Derek White chief judge of the city’s municipal court. White succeeds Judge Tom Cole, who resigned the post after he was appointed to a seat in Chatham County Juvenile Court. White is a senior partner at the White Law Group in Pooler, and has previously worked as a judge in Port Wentworth’s municipal court.
“(White) holds our court to high standards,” said Port Wentworth Mayor Glenn “Pig” Jones. “He’s very professional, he’s very fair, and frankly, we are lucky to have him.”