Will Semblers plans for luxury outlet mall raise or fall on tax incentives?
ANALYSIS Sembler Co. president Jeff Fuqua has said he will abandon plans to build the Okatie Crossings shopping center and luxury outlet mall if South Carolina doesn’t grant the company tens of millions of dollars in tax incentives. One of Fuqua’s lieutenants, however, has since seemingly hedged, saying the company would build a center without incentives, albeit a “dramatically different” one. The differences between those statements raises a key question as the company lobbies for the incentives: If Sembler doesn’t get the incentives, what will it do? Because of the way the incentives would be structured, understanding how Sembler would respond if it doesn’t get them could help lawmakers determine whether to grant the break. The proposal, approved Tuesday by the Senate Finance Committee, would return sales tax revenues to developers of some “extraordinary commercial facilities,” including those for retail. The proposal would set aside a portion of such revenues, which normally would g
