If you’ve been shopping recently in the Overland Crossing Shopping Center and noticed an extra charge applied to your receipt near the sales tax, that’s a private fee. The fee — that appears on a Whole Foods Market receipt in the center as “OVRLAND GIF” — is a private general improvement fee, or GIF, of 1% on each purchase. Dave Claflin from Legacy Development said the GIF functions similarly to a Community Improvement District or a Tax Increment Financing District, in that the revenue generated by the extra fee pays for improvements within a set area. These private financing arrangements are sometimes called a public improvement fee, and have been used elsewhere in the U.S. In this case, the GIF is paying back improvements Legacy Development did on the Overland Crossing Shopping Center as part of the district’s redevelopment effort, including parking lot improvements, new parking lot islands and new walkways. Claflin said the fee could also be used to help pay for improvements to the shopping center in the future, like HVAC replacements or more parking lot replacements. “That stuff’s an ongoing concern for all shopping centers,” he said. “But especially bigger ticket things that you typically run into when you’re really renovating a center like we did, that’s when you really need it.” Whole Foods Market is one of more than half a dozen stores in the Overland Crossing shopping center that has a 1% charge on all purchased items. Photo credit Kaylie McLaughlin.
Unlike with a CID or a TIF, the city has no authority over the administration of a GIF. Instead, a third party is collecting the fee revenue and administering its distribution to pay back bondholders, Claflin said. “It basically just takes that idea of the TIF and takes the city out of the equation and relieves them of the responsibility of administering it and puts it in the third party’s hands,” he said. City officials stress though that the GIF isn’t a tax.
Source: Shawnee Mission Post
