PG offers $10K to woo restaurants

(Daily Herald) Watch out, American Fork, Lindon and Lehi. Pleasant Grove wants two restaurants badly enough to pay for them -- $10,000 each.

The city agreed on Tuesday to offer a bonus of that amount to brokers who specialize in bringing full-service, business-class restaurants into cities.

"We are trying to differentiate ourselves from the competition when it comes to recruiting restaurants," said Richard Bradford, the city's economic development director. "We have come up with one idea that we think will stand us a little taller next to our neighboring cities. To emphasize the urgency, we are currently working with two national chains looking at The Grove -- and four other cities."

City officials will be attending a large convention of commercial developers next month, and they would like to spread the word about the bonuses at that time to encourage swift action, he said.

To get the bonus, the restaurant would have to take in at least $2 million within 12 months of opening, a requirement that should be no problem because the restaurants the city is courting take in nearly $3.5 million annually on average, Bradford said. At the $2 million mark, each restaurant would pay Pleasant Grove $10,000 in taxes, and the city would not pay out the bonus to the real estate broker until after the restaurant had paid the taxes.

Bradford said he is normally firmly opposed to financial incentives for business, but this time he's on the other side of the fence because "we are so desperate to provide eating facilities."

If the incentive is successful, the city might want to think about using the strategy when courting other businesses, Mayor Bruce Call said.

Original Article