The Gateway Lofts project being worked on by Southern Tier Environments For Living took another step forward Monday night at the City Council’s voting session.

City council had a resolution up for discussion under new business regarding entering into a payment in lieu of taxes agreement with STEL for the project, which would result in STEL providing $70,116.48 to the city each year for a period of 15 years with a zero percent increase.

Steven Ald with STEL spoke to the council briefly before the resolution was discussed, thanking the city for their continued support of the project, which has been in the works since 2018.

“It’s been a long process and the project has evolved over the years,” Ald said. “In the last five to seven years we’ve had the support of the council and patience of the council.”

Ald said one of the things holding up the project was the loss of an investor during the COVID-19 pandemic, who never came back. STEL has a new investor now for the project, which is ready to move forward, and that is where the PILOT agreement comes in.

“One of the most important parts is to have a PILOT agreement in place, which is why I am here today to talk about the PILOT, and the importance of it,” Ald said. “Investors won’t close without it, and we hope to close with them soon, possibly this year and then get on to construction, which takes about 16 months.”

Ald added it is not uncommon to have no escalator on a PILOT, and not having one is very helpful for a project because then when the state and investors who are funding the project make them project their income to increase at two percent and expenses at three percent, it can become a problem over time with the project. With no increased amount on the PILOT, the state would have to charge a three percent increase on everything except the PILOT.

“That’s why we asked for a zero percent increase, to help us show that this project is viable for 15 to 30 years,” Ald said. “They want to see a positive cash flow for 15 years and that’s tough to meet when you have everything going up at three percent and your income going up by two percent.”

Following some discussion by council as to whether or not the resolution for the agreement should be tabled to discuss more at the next work session, the council approved entering into the PILOT agreement with STEL for the Gateway Lofts project.