WILSON, Pa. – While it waits for word on whether a special tax subsidy is a go, the development group behind the Dixie Cup project in Wilson Borough is wrapping up an important phase in the overhaul.
Skyline Investment Group has filed a public notice, indicating remediation work at the blighted factory on S. 24th Street is finished.
The notice says Skyline will be submitting a final report to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) that shows the completed remediation has attained compliance with the statewide health and site-specific cleanup standards.
Skyline is in the midst of transforming the old factory, which closed in 1983, into 405 apartments.
Last week, the 50,000-gallon Dixie Cup was removed from the top of the structure. It’s being incorporated into a community park planned for the property.
This week, Skyline could learn whether the third time will be the charm for a tax incentive proposal for the redevelopment.
Skyline is seeking Northampton County Council’s approval of a 20-year, $26.4 million tax abatement proposal known as a TIF, or Tax Increment Financing plan.
The ask got a ‘no’ from council in November, even after Wilson Borough Council and the Wilson Area School District board of directors — the other two bodies that had to approve the TIF — had already given their blessing.
That followed the denial of a LERTA (Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance) proposal in 2022, before Skyline was involved.
But, in February, Skyline Managing Partner Brian Bartee indicated he planned to try again to get Northampton County Council on board with the TIF; three dissenting votes cast in November came from commissioners who are no longer on council.
A public hearing on TIF 2.0 was held last month. Northampton County Council previously scheduled a possible vote on the TIF at its next meeting on Thursday, May 7, which will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the government center at 669 Washington St. in Easton.