Meck County commissioners appear skeptical of Atrium tax breaks

CHARLOTTE — The plan is for Atrium Health to bring a medical campus to Charlotte. However, on Tuesday afternoon, health officials were the ones who found themselves in school as Commissioner Susan Rodriguez-McDowell got out a whiteboard to drill into their proposal.

Atrium is seeking $38 million in reimbursed taxes over 15 years from Mecklenburg County.

“I really want to know what I am voting for,” she said. “I love the project. I really love the project. But I want to know why we need county money.”

If approved by the county, the money would go toward infrastructure projects, such as relocating transmission lines and building an 800-space parking deck. Infrastructure is not typically in the county’s wheelhouse and commissioners asked Atrium why they should give the hospital system money that could be better used on county priorities.

[ALSO READ: Atrium seeks $75M for ‘Innovation District’ surrounding new medical school]

“We are a human services agency. That is what we do,” Rodriguez-McDowell said. “When we forgive the taxes for these folks, that’s less money that we have to invest in people.”

“We are going to need that tax revenue to meet the needs of the people,” Vice-Chair Elaine Powell said.

For now, Mecklenburg County Commissioners appear to be skeptical of this deal for Atrium. It’s an unexpected setback after a similar presentation to the Charlotte City Council was received positively and members of both delegations just toured the Innovation Quarter in Winston-Salem, which this project is being modeled after.

As the meeting wrapped up Tuesday, it was clear that Atrium CEO Gene Woods took a defensive stance. He asked county commissioners to consider how they would approach the project if an outside company was proposing it. He pointed out Centene received money for an East Coast headquarters.

“I would ask you to reframe and think about if we were an outside health system with this set of partnerships and capabilities doing this for the community,” Woods said.

[ALSO READ: Atrium outlines $94M wish list for med school development]

The Charlotte City Council and Mecklenburg County Commission are expected to vote in November.

The project has some support from the Mecklenburg County Commission. Commissioner Pat Cotham thanked Atrium for the proposal and asked for the affordable housing commitment to be increased. The current proposal only includes 5% of the units at 50% AMI. That translates to about 17 or 18 units.

Commissioner Laura Meier said she was initially opposed to the project but Tuesday’s presentation by Atrium convinced her it has merit. Commissioners asked Atrium questions for about an hour, but Woods and other execs did not answer most of them.

Rodriguez-McDowell asked why Atrium doesn’t just pay for the infrastructure improvements out of their own pocket, but did not get a response.

“Why can’t they spend their money instead of the people’s money?” she said. “That’s just a basic question.”

The Innovation Quarter will include a medical school, four research towers, retail, a hotel and apartments. Atrium is also seeking $15 million in city CIP funding and $21 million in reimbursed taxes from the city of Charlotte.

(Watch the video below: Atrium seeks $75M for ‘Innovation District’ surrounding new medical school)

Atrium seeks $75M for ‘Innovation District’ surrounding new medical school

©2021 Cox Media Group