reser's fine foods 2.JPG
Workers help sort Reser's French onion dip at Reser's Fine Foods' Beaverton headquarters in this file photo.
(Brent Wojahn/The Oregonian)
Reser's Fine Foods hopes to win up to five years in property tax breaks upon moving production to Hillsboro, but company and city officials are mum about details.
The food manufacturer announced last week that it will move work done at two Beaverton production and distribution facilities to a new 310,000-square foot plant in Hillsboro. The new building, expected to be completed by fall 2015, will have 35 percent more capacity than the two Beaverton facilities combined, the company said.
Reser's has applied to be part of Hillsboro's North Industrial Area Enterprise Zone. Under the state's enterprise zone program, cities can offer property tax relief to businesses that expand facilities and employment in Oregon.
The program requires companies to increase full-time, permanent employment by either one new job or 10 percent, whichever is greater. In return, businesses receive three to five years of property tax exemptions on new buildings and structures, structural modifications or additions, and newly installed machinery and equipment. Land and previously used property value do not qualify for exemption.
To qualify for the tax breaks, Reser's also would have to satisfy other requirements, according to the city's specifications:
- Guarantee no concurrent job losses within 30 miles of the enterprise zone.
- Maintain employment levels during the exemption period.
- Provide job training and advancement opportunities to all employees
- Invest at least $1 million in the new facility.
- Increase purchases from Hillsboro-based companies by 10 percent annually.
- Pay hourly wages at an average of at least 150 percent of Oregon's minimum wage for a three-year exemption, or pay at least 75 percent of hourly wages at a rate exceeding 200 percent of the minimum wage for a four- or five-year exemption.
- Provide benefits at an hourly value equal or greater than 20.2 percent of the average hourly salary for all years of exemption.
- Pay the city an application fee of 0.1 percent of the total estimated value of investment, capped at $25,000.
- Pay a community service fee of 25 percent of abated taxes for years four and five, if business receive a four- or five-year exemption.
Reser's has submitted an application for the enterprise zone to the city. Approved applications typically qualify as public records, but city officials declined to provide the Reser's application before it is approved because the company has not consented to its release. It is not clear how much in tax value the city is giving up.
"State law recognizes that there are times when the public interest requires a delay in the disclosure of information considered to be a trade secret," said city spokesman Patrick Preston in an emailed statement. "Based on our conversations with our City Attorney, we believe this is one of those situations. We are required to keep a record exempt from disclosure if a business interested in becoming part of an Enterprise Zone believes that releasing that document would prematurely reveal its investment plans, trade secrets or other information that could be detrimental to its business."
The statement adds that the city risks legal liability by releasing the document because it could affect Reser's Fine Foods' ability to "move forward with its plans to expand in Hillsboro."
Preston said last week that businesses are typically approved for enterprise zone participation if they meet all the requirements.
The state's enterprise zone application document shows that Reser's would have to identify its current level of employment and the number of new employees it plans to hire. That information is unavailable to the public because the city declined to release the completed application.
Linda Riedman, a Reser's spokeswoman, said the company would not provide any additional information about the planned facility beyond what it announced in last week's news release.
To establish enterprise zones, cities seek state approval. Hillsboro created the North Industrial Area Enterprise Zone, which spans nearly six miles, in 2006, Preston said. Over 20 businesses in that zone – including Adobe Systems, SolarWorld and TriQuint Semiconductor – already participate in the program. Hillsboro has two other enterprise zones, as well: the Central Business District Enterprise Zone downtown and the South Industrial Enterprise Zone in the city's southwest corner.
The city said last year that its enterprise zones have created 1,420 new jobs and that employees working within them made an average salary of $56,333 in 2012.
The new Reser's plant will be located north of the Sunset Highway, on a lot north of Northwest Jacobson Road, south of Northwest Pubols Road and west of Northwest Century Boulevard – not far from Beaverton Foods, another Beaverton transplant – according to a city planning document.
Reser's, which employs 4,800 workers across 16 facilities in the United States and Mexico, will keep its corporate headquarters in Beaverton, the company said. Traditionally a maker of prepared dips and salads, the business recently expanded into fresh fruit and vegetables. Reser's is one of Oregon's biggest privately held companies; in 2011, it pulled in nearly $1 billion in revenue.
Beaverton did not offer Reser's any incentives to stay, said city spokesman Bill LaMarche.
Laura Frazier of the Oregonian staff contributed to this report.
-- Luke Hammill