City finalizes TIF for medical center

More commercial development could be coming to Columbia Falls. The city completed preparation for it last week by approving an expansion of its urban renewal and tax increment finance district to the Cedar Palace Medical Center and surrounding 23 acres.

The property could eventually see an expanded medical park on lands to the east of the center, which are currently open fields.

The city agreed to expand the district as it could allow future tax increment funds to extend city services like sewer and water lines.

The city and the medical facility are currently working on extending sewer and water lines to the palace. The approximately $1.2 million project is bolstered by a $633,000 federal Economic Development Administration grant.

The medical center is paying for about half of the remaining costs and the city the other half.

The project also includes improvements to 12th Avenue West, which is potholed and battered from years of heavy truck traffic.

But that project only brings sewer and water to the front door of the facility, it doesn’t completely serve the rest of the property, or improve any of the other roads, like the Truck Route.

The expansion of the TIF was seen by city council members as a way to create jobs and provide those services. The cost of expanding the TIF was about $20,000 out of city coffers.

The Cedar Palace has about 70 people working at its various clinics and services.