MANCHESTER, NH – The Manchester Board of Mayor and Aldermen will act upon a new Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district to help complete infrastructure improvements related to RAISE grants won by the city in 2021.
The federally awarded grants were intended to bring a series of additions to an area just south of the city’s central business district ranging from a bridge across Granite Street to a “peanut” roundabout at the intersection of South Willow Street, Willow Street and Queen City Avenue. In 2024, funds were approved to study the feasibility of a TIF district in the area to raise additional funding for the completion of the projects after various factors made the improvements cost more than originally estimated when the grant funding was awarded. Under New Hampshire law, TIF districts are a tool that can be used by municipalities where property value increases stemming from infrastructure improvements are paid for by property taxes from properties near those improvements, with the funds from those taxes going to repay upfront costs for the improvements for a certain time rather than going into the municipality’s general fund. Manchester recently approved its first-ever TIF district, which will help to finance a new affordable housing complex and parking garage at what is now the Pearl Street parking lot.
In the presentation about the RAISE grant-related proposed TIF district, which was also referred to as the Southern Millyard TIF district, Manchester Department of Public Works Director Tim Clougherty and Assistant Director Owen Friend-Gray recapped the situation for the Aldermen.
At the time of the RAISE grant, the various projects were expected to cost a total of $30 million, with $25 million coming from the grant and the rest coming from the city. By 2025, costs had risen to approximately $50 million, with half of that increase coming from the need to account for the purchase of rail land by CSX from Pan Am, with the different trains used by CSX necessitating a larger bridge over a raii line connecting Northeast Delta Dental Stadium with the Elm Street corridor. To keep the RAISE grant funding, all funding must be obligated by 2027 and construction must be completed by 2032, with Friend-Gray saying all bids and planning must be complete by fall of 2026 to meet these deadlines. If the deadlines are not met, the city would have to pay back RAISE funding already used and would lose funding yet to be allocated. Additionally, if the improvements were downsized, that would reduce the amount of funding the city would receive.
City of Manchester Finance Department Director Sharon Wickens said that the request for bonding would not impact the city’s bond rating due to the revenue being repaid from a TIF district rather than generalized revenue.
A vote for the TIF district is expected in April.