Funds to support practical regional development strategies
The Center for Real Estate at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte has received grants to fund two research projects aimed toward streamlining the Charlotte region's planning and development.
The first project, funded by the Crosland Foundation, is titled "Applying Tax Increment Financing (TIF) in the Charlotte Region," which the Center for Real Estate will conduct jointly with the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute. In 2004, North Carolina voters approved an amendment to the state constitution giving local government the ability to issue TIF (termed "self-financing bonds" in North Carolina), for economic development purposes.
"Most local governments are still in the early stages of developing their specific legislation and guidelines for implementing the TIF zones," said Steven Ott, the John Crosland Sr. distinguished professor of real estate in UNC Charlotte's Belk College of Business and director of the Center for Real Estate. "We want to help the region's planners, economic development commissions and real estate developers best use TIF by providing them with practical guidelines for implementation."
The second project, which will be funded by the Piedmont Public Policy Institute, will study another highly relevant regional concern: alternative strategies for financing and developing public school construction.
"Facilitating school construction using private sector partnerships has become popular because it can reduce reliance on bond financing and enhance construction efficiency," Ott said. "Cities including Greenville, S.C., Portland, Ore., and Houston have used public-private partnerships - suggesting a similar potential benefit for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.
"Existing research has not provided enough information about structuring these partnerships, especially from a legal or financial perspective," Ott continued. "Our research will work to fill this void by analyzing current partnership structures to identify the best potential partnership model for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools."
The Center for Real Estate was established in February 2005 to focus on research topics of concern to the industry and to expand the real estate curriculum at UNC Charlotte. Information on the real estate program is available at http://www.belkcollege.uncc.edu/Real_Estate/index.htm.
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