Owner of new Cedar Rapids building get tax break

The owner of a new $2.3 million commercial and light industrial building in southwest Cedar Rapids will receive a 10-year property tax break.

Lehman, Allsop, Evans LLC is planning to construct a 21,000-square-foot building south of Kenworth Court SW near Interstate 380. The building will house Mediaquest Outdoor Advertising and Lehman, Allsop, Evans LLC,  that were displaced by the 2008 flood, and Mediaquest Signs and Graphics and Sterling Transportation Services, creating 25 jobs and retaining six positions.

The Cedar Rapids City Council approved a declining scale partial Urban Revitalization Tax Exemption averaging 44 percent per year. The exemption would be applied to the increased property valuation generated by the new construction.

Based on an increased taxable value of $1,460,000 generated by the new construction, it is estimated that $230,000 in additional tax revenue will be collected and $213,000 will be deferred as tax exempt.