City Council has extended the city’s agreement with the developer of a cold-storage distribution center.
Council voted unanimously at a special meeting to authorize an amendment to the agreement of sale with NewCold USA Real Estate Holding LLC.
The amendment extends the due diligence period to Sept. 30, giving the developer more time to obtain required permits for a 417,000-square-foot warehouse on the property at 1 Berkshire Place.
City Council voted last July to sell the 50-acre parcel west of Clinton Street, formerly known as the Dana South site, to NewCold for $4.5 million.
As a condition of the sale, the buyer had one year to obtain the necessary zoning and planning commission approvals.
“The progress of work going on with NewCold is actually moving forward steadily,” said Jamal F. Abodalo, community development director. “And we are very pleased to say that there has been a lot of progress in that regard.”
The Reading Zoning Hearing Board in May granted the variances needed for the height of the proposed building and temporary construction equipment on the site.
A variance was also granted for airport height limitations on the site, located in the MC-Manufacturing Commercial zoning district, and the Riverfront Redevelopment and Airport overlay zones.
“But, as you know, sometimes decisions can get delayed,” Abodalo said.
The plans still need to be reviewed by the planning commission, he said.
Abodalo also said he is working to come up with tax incentives for the developer along the lines of the state-created tax abatement program known as Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance, or LERTA.
LERTA authorizes local taxing authorities to provide tax exemption as an incentive for redevelopment and would require the cooperation of the city, Reading School District and Berks County.
Abodalo said he plans to meet with school district officials this month.
“This is a developer that is going to bring in about $160 million investment on the site itself,” he said.
The project is expected to provide new tax revenue for all three taxing entities, he noted, and create about 112 jobs, down from a previous estimate of 175.
The city bought the parcel in 2019 for $1.54 million from the Reading Redevelopment Authority after the authority defaulted on a loan it had taken to buy the property.
The authority acquired the parcel for $1.65 million in 2013, six years after the Berkshire Bottling Works ran out of funds and abandoned a partially built plant on the site.
NewCold USA Real Estate Holding LLC is a European-based company that owns warehouses and cold supply chain companies.
Source: Berkshire mont
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