[StBernard] Chalmette shopping mall developers avoid more than $11, 000 in parish fees

[Westley Annis]

The developers of the estimated $20 million Chalmette shopping center known
as The Mall, housing a six-screen movie theater and one of the largest
retail collections in St. Bernard Parish, have been excused from paying more
than $11,000 in fees for parish building permits during the past two years
-- a parish government perk rarely, if ever, afforded to other businesses,
records show.

In addition, the parish has dipped into its own funds to pay nearly $10,000
in fees for The Mall to the outside contractor that performs commercial
building inspections, according to parish permit data.

The Mall's developers are Joe Licciardi, a colonel in the St. Bernard Parish
Sheriff's Office who is a close friend and business associate of Sheriff
Jack Stephens at Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop in the French Quarter, and Ray
Peacock, a Metairie developer.

St. Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro said he issued several of the
no-cost permits as an administrative incentive to lure tenants to St.
Bernard Parish at a difficult economic time for commercial investment.
Although several of the permit documents note "waived per Taffaro" with a
slash through the fee, Taffaro said the permits were actually deferred and
eventually will be paid back once the entire development is built out.


He said the St. Bernard Parish School Board was offered a similar incentive
with permit fees for rebuilding schools after Hurricane Katrina. No other
businesses in St. Bernard have been excused from permit fees, although
Wal-Mart was offered them but decided to pay, Taffaro said.


"It's pretty common practice across the country, in terms of trying to
incentivize businesses to open, especially in a market such as St. Bernard
that was rebuilding," Taffaro said. He said if other investors wanted to get
the same benefits, "all they have to do is come and ask."


Taffaro said Licciardi's political connections had "zero" affect on his
decision to hold back on permit fees. Licciardi could not be reached for
comment. Taffaro received a $2,500 contribution last fall from 8700 W. Judge
Perez Drive LLC, a company registered to Licciardi and a relative of
Peacock.


Many parishes and cities offer specific tax incentives to lure business
development. In Kenner earlier this year, for example, the City Council
authorized former Mayor Ed Muniz to grant $1.4 million in tax incentives to
lure a Target store to The Esplanade mall.

While the amount of money for The Mall's permits isn't that high, St.
Bernard Parish does not have a policy outlining how such incentives are
granted or applied for.


Taffaro said he decided to grant the deferral of the permits because of the
huge amount of investment -- more than $20 million -- the developers were
making in a formerly blighted section of the parish. Based on e-mail
messages in the permit records folder between Taffaro and Jerry Graves Jr.,
the former director of the parish's Community Development department, the
decision was made unilaterally by Taffaro.


"This is in the heart of Chalmette. It was a blighted piece of property,"
Taffaro said. "I wish the owners of the Schwegmann's property right next
door would say, 'I wish I could defer the permit fees.'"


Peacock, the developer, had owned the property decades before, and purchased
it with Licciardi and other investors after Katrina. Peacock owns several
hotels and shopping centers throughout the metro area, particularly in
Jefferson Parish.


Peacock said the permit waivers amounted to nothing, compared with the size
of the investment and the eventual sales tax revenue that will be generated
by The Mall. Convincing tenants to return to Chalmette after Katrina was
difficult, he said, and he was surprised the parish didn't have more in the
way of property or sales tax incentives to lure investors."There was a lot
of effort in getting the tenants back in there, and some of them I couldn't
do anything with because I couldn't get any concessions. None. Period,"
Peacock said. "On a scale of one to 10, I'd give it a zero. ... If they
think they did something out there, they (darn) sure didn't do anything to
help us."


Because of the way construction permit fees are structured in St. Bernard,
the parish ended up having to pay an outside contractor for a substantial
amount of fees for The Mall. St. Bernard uses a nonprofit group called the
Institute for Building Technology and Safety, IBTS, to perform certified
building inspections for commercial properties.


The fees that go to IBTS constitute a significant amount of the permit fee.
For example, the total fee for the Cato Department Store in the shopping
center was $1,270. Of that, $220 is the parish portion and $1,050 is the
IBTS portion.


So the parish didn't receive the $220 from the developers and also paid
$1,050 to IBTS out of parish funds.


Taffaro said he intended for the IBTS fees to be invoiced and paid later,
not immediately, and did not know why the government had paid them upfront.
An August 2009 e-mail message from Graves, who left as the Community
Development director last month, noted the issues with the IBTS fees.


Graves wrote in an e-mail message to Taffaro: "The Peacock/Licciardi
coalition has stated that you promised them relief on permit fees for their
project. I have been down this road with them before and have explained that
we cannot issue permits for free and operate at a loss." He went on to write
that perhaps they could pay the outside IBTS fee and a portion of the parish
fee. But Graves noted, "Right now they are asking for relief on the IBTS
fees and that is just not feasible due to expenses we have already incurred
for those services."


Taffaro said he expects the developers to pay back the parish for the
deferred fees once the shopping center is finished. He said he has not
worked out any specific deadlines for the repayment.


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Couple of thoughts:


If the 11K wasn't "that big a deal" to Peacock, then why try to get the fee
waived?


If I were another business owner who had to pay the fees I might be really
pissed right now.


Is it stuff like this that caused Mr. Graves to leave parish govt?


And last, isn't it getting really old to see connections to the Sheriff in
almost everything in the parish?  Yes, the guy has done a good job as
sheriff, but damn does he have to have his hands, feet, and face in
**everything** in the parish?  I hope Cresap has been doing a whooole lot of
talking to feds before his sentencing.