Greater Harrisburg's Community Magazine

Planting Seeds: Businesspeople can invest anywhere, which is why incentives are needed to make Harrisburg’s re-development self-sustaining.

Screenshot 2015-06-30 08.05.06As a professional services provider in the Harrisburg area for the last 17 years, I have come to know quite a few city business owners, including developers, restaurateurs, contractors, retailers and others. During that time, I have found most to be genuine and sincere in their devotion to Harrisburg and came to realize quickly that, for many of these businesspeople, despite what you may think, it is definitely not “all about the Benjamins.”

Over the past several years, I find myself shaking my head when reading blog posts, letters to the editor and other outlets for area residents to voice their opinions when the topic of city investment and development takes center stage. For most opinion-sharers, the default setting seems to be one of skepticism around the intentions of these businesspeople, especially when the issue of tax abatement comes up.

Some folks believe that those businesspeople pushing for tax abatement are “looking for a hand-out” or are trying to circumvent the “system.” As someone who has seen and understands the financial proposition to be considered by many city business owners, I can confirm that many of the deals are not financially viable without tax abatement, especially the kind of larger-scale development projects that would be most impactful to our city and region. In other words, without tax abatement, investors, in many instances, are looking at deals that would likely lose money and, therefore, not be financially viable. Nobody is lining up to make those investments, nor should we, as a community, expect them to do so.

What we have to keep in mind is that these investors/business owners/developers have choices in terms of where they deploy their capital and in many cases—again, I can attest to this, based upon the deals I have reviewed—the alternatives to investment in our city are significantly more lucrative. So, rather than meeting investment interest in city development and commerce with skepticism and derision, perhaps we should consider applauding investors for their collective efforts and risk-taking. And maybe hope that their investments turn out to be financially successful, as well.

Why should we care about the financial side of these deals? Because financial success will spur additional development and draw new investors to our city, the results of which will most assuredly be to our collective benefit and enjoyment, and, all the while, for the future, create a larger tax base capable of supporting sustainable growth in our city.

So, the next time you are enjoying dinner at a city restaurant or coffee at a cool city coffeehouse and see trees that were recently planted along the sidewalks, ask yourself—did Gordon Gekko plant those or did someone who has a broader view of success?

Stephen C. Gierasch is the managing shareholder of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney’s Harrisburg office, a community publisher for TheBurg.

Continue Reading