Hoover council gives $101,000 in tax breaks for company relocation, expansion

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The Hoover City Council on Monday approved about $101,000 worth of tax abatements for Occupational Health Dynamics, a company that makes medical and occupational safety equipment.

OHD plans to spend about $2.3 million to relocate from its current corporate headquarters at 2687 John Hawkins Parkway (across from Hoover Toyota) to a vacant building in Meadow Brook Corporate Park, said Greg Knighton, the city’s economic developer manager.

The relocation is expected to result in the addition of 14 new employees to the current 37 employees, and the average salary of the new jobs is expected to be $72,857, Knighton said.

To help OHD with its relocation, the Hoover City Council agreed to abate $76,911 worth of non-educational property taxes over 10 years and $24,000 in construction-related sales and use taxes, for a total of $100,911 in estimated abatements.

Only about $39,000 of that tax money would have gone to the city of Hoover, Knighton said. The rest would have gone to the state or Shelby County, he said.

The company’s renovations to the vacant building at Meadow Brook Corporate Park should increase the value of that property by an estimated $500,000, Knighton said. That should result in about $25,000 in net new property tax revenue for Hoover City Schools over 10 years, he said. Additionally, the city should gain nearly $3,000 in building permit fees, he said.

“We’re thrilled to have an empty building filled in Meadow Brook,” Knighton added.

The life sciences sector of industry is one of the city’s targeted areas for economic development growth, and Meadow Brook is an area that the city’s comprehensive plan calls for revitalization with these sorts of companies, he said.

OHD has been leasing space in the building on John Hawkins Parkway since 2015.

In other business Monday, the Hoover City Council agreed to deduct $171,324 from its monthly payment to Amwaste due to Amwaste missing at least 2,138 garbage pickups between March 25 and April 26. The city’s contract calls for a service level of 99.9% accuracy in garbage pickups, which would mean no more than 229 missed pickups a month, City Administrator Ken Grimes said.

The $171,324 is the amount of money the city has spent due to problems with Amwaste’s service, Grimes said. That includes the $70,000 the city spent to acquire a garbage truck from Alabaster to help with missed pickups, plus the cost of drivers, dumping fees, equipment usage and the cost of staff to handle complaints and manage remediation efforts, Grimes said.

“It’s a crisis if we don’t get it fixed,” Grimes told the council in its work session Thursday. However, “I think they can fix it.”

Councilman Casey Middlebrooks said it’s very frustrating to see Amwaste missing pickups at the same houses repeatedly. If Amwaste can’t fix the problem, the city may have to start its own garbage service, but he hopes to avoid having to do that because it would be a costly endeavor, he said.

City officials encourage people to report missed pickups via the My Hoover Connect app in order to properly document as many missed pickups as possible. There likely were many more missed pickups than 2,138 in that one-month period, but that is all that was documented, Grimes said.

The Hoover City Council also on Monday:

  • Agreed to pay CB&A Construction $414,536 to build new sidewalks along Sulphur Springs Road from Preserve Parkway to Al Seier Road and along Al Seier from Sulphur Springs Road to the western side of Shades Mountain Park. The job should start in June and be done within 120 days, city engineers said.
  • Held off on amending the city’s 2024 budget to provide $500,000 for legal bills related to the city’s efforts to get a certificate of need for a new ambulatory surgery center and diagnostics center in the Riverwalk Village development in Riverchase Office Park for further analysis of those expected legal bills. The city already has been billed $227,364 by a special health care attorney hired for this purpose, but the city likely will have to spend $250,000 more to complete the task because the city’s request is being contested, Grimes said.
  • Agreed to dispose of 12 vehicles, including nine Chevrolet Tahoes, two Dodge Chargers and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. The vehicles are either past their service life, have mechanical problems or were totaled by the risk services department, records show.
  • Agreed for the city to participate in the state’s annual back-to-school sales tax holiday on July 19-21.
  • Agreed to cut high weeds and/or grass at 1697 Montgomery Highway, 2337 Tyler Road and 3406 Flintshire Drive and charge the cost of services back to the property owners.

See the video of Monday night's Hoover City Council meeting on The Hoover Channel's YouTube page.