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Nursing home backers make pitch to Collierville

Commercial Appeal - 4/7/2017

April 06--A proposed new retirement community was the focus of attention at Wednesday's meeting of the Collierville Industrial Development Board.

Backers of the project, called The Farms at Bailey Station, are asking the board to issue about $26 million in low-interest bonds to fund a 60-bed nursing facility at the site north of the intersection of Poplar Avenue and Houston Levee Road in Collierville. The nursing facility is part of a larger project that would provide different levels of care to seniors, ranging from independent living to a special area for people with dementia.

Memphis-based Retirement Companies of America is backing the project -- it's the company that developed the Kirby Pines community in Memphis. Senior Vice President Michelle Vincent said the group has aimed to design its nursing facility with subdivided spaces that are much like a home rather than the long halls of an institution.

The project would bring tax dollars to Collierville and encourage people to move to town, company president Charlie Trammell said.

"It is incomprehensible how much it's going to mean," Trammell said.

Fees paid by nursing home users would pay back the bonds that the Industrial Development Board issues. The deal would be structured such that the town and the board wouldn't face liability if the owners defaulted on payments, said board attorney Joshua Lawhead.

The town might face higher borrowing costs if it issues more than $10 million in debt per year, and the nursing home bonds would count toward that limit. However, town administrator James Lewellen said the town isn't currently planning any bond issues, so it's not a problem in the short term.

After much discussion, town economic development director John Duncan said he'd research some of the questions that board members raised, including inquiries about the company's tax exempt status, and that the board would vote at a meeting yet to be scheduled.

Also Wednesday, the board quickly approved compliance reports for the PILOT, or payment-in-lieu-of-taxes program. Companies that receive tax breaks under the program must show each year that they're providing the required number of jobs.

The biggest employer in Collierville, FedEx, showed a total of 2,554 jobs at its World Technology Center. That's 85 percent of the 3,020 jobs required.

Under the terms of the contract, though, FedEx is only considered in default if the number of jobs drops below 80 percent of the jobs required. And its wages exceed the expectations in the contract: about $99,000 for average professional wages, compared to the $55,000 required.

Reach reporter Daniel Connolly at 529-5296, daniel.connolly@commercialappeal.com, or on Twitter at @danielconnolly.

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