City leaders want to capitalize on sale of State School property

LACONIA — City leaders are considering the addition of a fourth Tax Increment Financing District in Laconia's north end. 

“We’ve been working on possibly creating a fourth TIF district, had a meeting with [City Manager Kirk Beattie] on that this morning and department heads about potential impacts of a larger development up in the northern end of the city,” Planning Director Rob Mora said during the board’s meeting Tuesday night. “And the benefits that a TIF district could bring to us.”

The “larger development” referred to by Mora in the meeting is that on the site of the former Laconia State School, where Pillsbury Development intends to construct a multi-family, mixed-use community on the city's northern end. 

The $10.5 million deal for the sale of the 217-acre property, approved by the Executive Council in August 2024, could bring 2,000 units of housing to Laconia. 

“Especially if we needed to expand city services or create additional municipal structures, such as a new public works facility or police or fire substations,” Mora said Tuesday. “We’re going to continue investigating that option to possibly bring to city council.”

“Hopefully they’ll be submitting something in the next month or so,” Mora said during the meeting. 

The new TIF district could be centered upon the intersection of Elm Street and Parade Road, according to a city planning department staff report. It’s not clear what the potential boundaries of the district would be. 

TIF districts were created in Laconia about 20 years ago and essentially allow the city to invest in itself. They’re hyper-local investment funds which capture a portion of property taxes and earmark monies for projects and improvements in the neighborhood where they originated. 

The city has three TIF districts: one downtown, another in the Weirs and a third in Lakeport. In 2004, the council created the downtown TIF. The Lakeport TIF came four years later, and the Weirs TIF was created in 2013.

Recently, the downtown TIF earmarked $81,000 for beautification to the city center, including landscaping efforts like the planting of tulips. 

Property taxes within the TIF districts are split into two categories. There’s the existing tax revenues relative to assessed property values when the district is initially formed, and property tax revenues based on the incremental property value as a result of capital improvements. 

New Hampshire RSA 162-K is the legislation enabling municipalities to adopt the authorities and powers to establish TIF districts. A TIF district can accept grants and issue bonds to pay the capital costs associated with public facilities improvement. It also establishes a financing plan, from the increment of the increased property tax base resulting from improving public facilities, in order to pay down bonds. 

When the prospect of the city purchasing a portion of the property which is currently home to the Laconia Antique Center first came before the city council, city leaders pondered using funds in the downtown TIF to offset potential costs of renovations there. 

A TIF district is one way for a municipality to encourage growth of the tax base without using monies in their general fund to finance infrastructure, services and other improvements. 

At the end of February, the downtown TIF account contained over $746,000.