The package of taxpayer incentives, grants and breaks would come from an Industrial Property Tax Abatement, the Good Jobs for Michigan program, a State Essential Services Assessment Exemption and a Michigan Business Development Program grant from the Michigan Strategic Fund, according to documents submitted this week to the Detroit City Council.
FCA's plans to spend $1.6 billion converting its Mack Avenue engine plants into a Jeep assembly plant and $900 million retooling and modernizing the company's nearby Jefferson North Assembly Plant will add 4,950 jobs and is expected to result in a "gross fiscal benefit" of $300 million, according to the Detroit Economic Growth Corp.
The disclosure of FCA's potential tax incentives comes three days after the city's self-imposed deadline to assemble 200 acres for FCA's plant expansion, which could add millions of dollars to the value of the subsidies for the automaker to expand its manufacturing footprint in the Motor City.
The potential tax incentives for Fiat Chrysler would need approval by the Michigan Strategic Fund's board.
A spokesman for the Michigan Economic Development Corp. would not confirm the $160 million figure.
"At this time, FCA and the MEDC are still finalizing the incentive package that will go before the MSF board," MEDC spokesman Otie McKinley said in an email. " As is always our process the MEDC does not share project details until time of MSF board approval."
No date has been set for the MSF board to consider tax incentives for the automaker, McKinley said.
Several pieces to finalizing FCA's expansion remain unresolved, although construction for the project has already begun in earnest with the removal of a berm on St. Jean Street, which the city plans to close between Conner and Mack avenues and give to FCA.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan's administration has committed to building a wall along the the new property line with abutting homes on Beniteau Street as part of a $17.4 million contribution to a community benefits agreement that is pending before City Council.
John Roach, spokesman for Duggan, said the mayor's office was "making significant progress" on the land deals and there will be "an announcement when everything is done."
Detroit's efforts to assemble public and private land around the two FCA plants is said to be a complicated matter involving a series of land swaps to lower the city's out-of-pocket costs. DTE Energy Co., the Great Lakes Water Authority and Hantz Farms have already publicly agreed to land deals with the city. City Council approved those land swaps Tuesday on a 7-2 vote, The Detroit News reported.
One of the biggest landowners with which Duggan's team has been negotiating is Crown Enterprises, the real estate development arm of billionaire trucking mogul Manuel "Matty" Moroun's family business. The Morouns own an 80-acre paved parking lot that they lease to FCA for finished vehicle storage. It's the site of the former Budd Wheel plant, which Crown Enterprises demolished in 2017 to build a logistics and vehicle shipping center for FCA.
