December 22, 2010

The Real Estate Weekly article entitled "Pepsi is tempted to stay at 540,000 s/f MHP property" looks at the pending agreement between Pepsi Bottling and New York State over tax credits the company will receive in return for adding jobs. Steven Polivy, Chair of Akerman's Economic Development & Incentives practice, is quoted as saying, "I know that there are a lot of people who question whether these types of incentives really are pivotal in retaining tenants, but I've done a lot of these deals and I think they do." He goes on to reference a recent deal involving a distribution center in New York. He states, "A company I was representing in a deal for a distribution center did a cost comparison and found that relocating out of New York was much more cost effective because of the cheaper construction costs and also the better incentives elsewhere. If New York could have bridged the gap with incentives, that company would still be here today."