Restaurant to reopen next month; creating a new downtown TIF district in the works
Farmington selectmen, from left, Ryan Morgan and Steve Bunker; Town Manager Richard Davis, Town Secretary Linda Grant and at right, Selectman Dennis Pike at Tuesday night's meeting. Partially in view to Pike's right is Selectman Jessica Berry.
FARMINGTON - Plans to reopen a restaurant next month are moving forward after selectmen approved a new liquor license for the Lotus Blossom Restaurant.
The former Fortune Fountain restaurant was closed in early May by the state's health department after several food safety violations were found.
The new owner-manager, Ricky Lam of Blossom Chinese Restaurant, Inc., was an original partner who helped open the restaurant 27 years ago on Wilton Road, but wasn't involved with it in the years following. He told selectmen that he hopes to reopen the newly renovated restaurant on Aug. 15, if everything goes according to schedule. Building contractors are "completely renovating the interior, especially the kitchen," Lam said.
Selectman Dennis Pike wished Lam "the best of luck" and the board voted 4-0 to approve the liquor license. Selectman Drew Hufnagel did not attend the meeting.
In other matters, selectmen unanimously approved appointing a consultant to help create a tax increment financing (TIF) district for the revitalization of the downtown area. Discussion began two meetings ago but selectmen Hufnagel and Ryan Morgan wanted more time to research TIFs in the state and how it could be applied towards redevelopment of the downtown area.
Proposed is to designate a downtown district for TIF entitlement, develop data relative for the creation of a TIF district and a work plan towards an overall downtown redevelopment. Once a plan is established, the town can apply for a Downtown TIF from the state.
A TIF sets aside a portion of new taxable revenue and dedicates those funds, in this case, towards a redevelopment plan. A percentage of the new investment "captured" for the downtown programs and are sheltered from the state's formula for revenue sharing, education funding and county tax. Example TIF-funded projects could be improving downtown infrastructure, such as sidewalks or upgrading street lights; tourism or business promotion or property restoration through a loan program. All of the particulars, from how much new tax revenue would be set aside to how long the TIF district exists, can be determined by the designers of the TIF.
John Holden of Eaton Peabody Consulting Group will work with town officials, members of the Farmington Downtown Association and the Greater Franklin Development Corporation to draft the town's redevelopment program, a requirement for the establishment of the TIF district. According to the contract agreement, Holden will receive a fee of $9,850 to complete the process of designing a plan to town official approval of the plan. That process is expected to take up to four months.
Once the plan is agreed upon by selectmen, public meetings on the proposed TIF district would be held before the finalized TIF application is sent to the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development for its review. Holden is to receive a flat fee of $9,500 for completing the town's application process.
At Tuesday's meeting, the board was in unanimous agreement to pursue establishing a TIF district, but Hufnagel, via a phone call, and Morgan asked about the possibility of expanding the designated downtown TIF district to include the West Farmington area.
Holden said he will look into expanding the TIF district so the area across Center Bridge can benefit from TIF revitalization funding.
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This is a little bit off topic, but does anyone know what to do about gift certificates from the former Fortune Fountain? We have a fairly good sized one that we were given for Christmas. I was hoping they would get their act together and reopen, but this leaves me unsure of whether we have any recourse or not. I'd appreciate any info anyone could provide us with on this. And we are looking forward to the opening of the new restaurant!
I would hope He will Honor it.. I will miss Fortune Fountain.. Nobody else comes close, Except the place in Wilton..
Its the same owners and operators, I don't think they can afford to say no and turn customers away. I know I wont be going back!
Good luck eating there, they may do ok for a bit, but I expect things to back to the way they were in time..
We have one also, and am looking forward to the new opening
On another topic, what is a "TIF"? I'm familiar with a lot of acronyms, but this one eludes me, and I find no definition in the article.
TIF is tax increment financing - I've added it to the story.
A TIF is leverage a business uses to get itself welfare in the form of tax breaks for just locating in a certain place. Most businesses play neighboring towns off against each other to get the best deal. LOL cynically.
TIF's make it possible for a town to have business/factories and miss much of the benefits (taxes) while hosting all of the negatives (pollution, traffic, noise, infrastructure draining) It's part of the new normal. Then when these businesses have drained us, they can walk away like the tannery, Forsters, wood-turning mills that are rotting, and leave us the cost of cleanup and redevelopment.
I understand that there might be some issues over the TIF's, but the empty tannery, Forsters, and wood turning mills have a whole lot more to do with jobs being sent overseas than with people who want to drain the community dry. I don't know enough about the ins and outs of TIF's to say whether I think they are the way to go or not, but I would have to say they don't seem to be the root of our problems in this area.
good for lotus blossom. good luck . hopefully that former employees are two of they awsome old waitesses.
I'm happy to hear the restaurant will re-open under new ownership and I look forward to seeing some of the same friendly waitstaff from the former Fortune Fountain. I wish the new "Lotus Blossom" great success! There will be many who will be glad to see they are back in business.
forsters is now jardens, and its not empty.. on another topic burgers and fries sounds good.
I wish someone would do a study to see how many businesses that benefit from government funds are still in business... ( i.e. the old Fairbanks schoolhouse that burnt down, the old mill across from the old hospital that Bill Marceau is now putting in a development on, etc.).. I can think of four right now and there must be many more. When they have to "earn it, they will appreciate what they have"...
Gosh, that sounds like the root of a lot of the problems the State has. When they get hungry, they will go to work.
I'm am NOT in favor of paying more taxes just so we can give money to new businesses. Let them borrow their own money to build their business like we did.
Harold T. Balsonya WROTE:
July 15, 2012 • 4:25 pm
forsters is now jardens, and its not empty.
http://www.dailybulldog.com/db/features/state-pushing-to-get-former-wilton-mill-site-cleaned-up/
This is the OLD FOSTER BUILDING...