Cooper Tire’s Whiteland facility is located off of Whiteland Road within the Mohr Logistics Park.
Photo provided by Mohr Capital
A $300,000 tax break for the Cooper Tire & Rubber Company is in jeopardy if the company doesn’t sign its agreement by July 27.
Last February, Cooper Tire — with developer Mohr Capital acting on the company’s behalf — asked the Whiteland Town Council for a $340,000 personal property tax abatement to reimburse the developer for $340,000 in infrastructure improvements made to the roads, parking areas, ponds and landscaping in the area. Cooper Tire’s 996,000-square-foot warehouse opened last year land that was developed by Mohr at the corner of Whiteland and Graham roads.
The abatement, which is only for two years, is unique. Under the terms of the abatement, the town of Whiteland was expected to cover all of Cooper Tire’s personal property taxes, totaling about $426,000. The money left over from the abatement will be given back to the town, according to town documents.
The tax break was also designed to allow for Mohr to get reimbursed for improvements made to the area that the town benefited from, Mohr representatives said last year. Cooper Tire would receive the abatement, then use that money to pay Mohr back.
The abatement was originally approved conditionally, with the town council giving it final approval at another meeting later in 2021. However, officials say there is a major complication that has left the abatement on the edge of termination: failure to sign the abatement agreement.
Drafts of the agreement were created and circulated, the terms of which were finalized months ago, with the understanding that the agreement would be forwarded to Cooper Tire to be signed. As time passed, the agreement was never signed by Cooper Tire and Mohr. Because so much time had passed, it came to the point where a legal determination had to be made about whether or not they were in compliance with the agreement, town attorney Stephen Watson told the town council Tuesday night.
“Our view is no, they’re not,” he said
On June 14, the town council passed a motion to find Cooper Tire in compliance as long as they provided the signed agreement by June 24, if they didn’t then they would be found in noncompliance. However, Cooper Tire representatives failed to do so, leading to a hearing on the noncompliance being scheduled for Tuesday. The signed agreement had still not been received, Watson said.
However, in the last month, Whiteland officials received a call from the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, which had acquired Cooper Tire last year. A merger agreement between the companies was made public last February, with the purchase being completed last year, according to Goodyear.
Goodyear representatives told town officials that they were unsure of what was going on with the agreement and asked for more time to have their legal department look over the agreement. In a later conference call between Goodyear, Mohr and town officials that took place Monday, Goodyear asked for more time to look over the agreement, suggesting that they could have it done by July 27. That day is the statutory deadline to find the company in compliance, Watson said.
Jeff Bennett, a Mohr Capital representative, told the council that when Goodyear was buying Cooper Tire last year, the company was never made aware of the agreement or its related arrangements. Goodyear representatives were unable to make it from Ohio to be at Tuesday’s town council meeting, and even if they could have, they would not have been able to do much as it would have to be reviewed by management, he said.
“That really seems to be, as far as I can tell, the only issue they have. They just didn’t know anything about it” Bennett said.
Mohr is a party to the agreement and supports the idea of giving an extension to get an agreement that’s acceptable to the town, he said.
The town council was scheduled to vote on a resolution terminating the tax break on Tuesday, however, because of this new development, Watson told the council he created a new, alternative resolution that they should also consider. Under the alternative resolution, Cooper Tire/Goodyear has until July 27 to sign the tax abatement agreement, or else the abatement will be terminated and the company will need to pay its taxes. If the company does sign the agreement and submit it to the town by the deadline, then the abatement will continue as scheduled, town documents show.
This wording was preferred to avoid the need for a special meeting and a continuance of the hearing, Watson said. Goodyear was supportive of this measure, Bennett said.
Council member David Hawkins expressed concern about granting another extension. Cooper Tire had already missed two dates and needed to be held accountable, he said.
“I feel for Goodyear that they haven’t been brought up to date as to what was supposed to happen, but this is the second date that Cooper tire has missed — May 18 and June 24,” Hawkins said. “No matter what they’re involved in … they still need to be held accountable for the simple fact they were given an extension on May 18, And then they blew this extension as well, and now they’re asking for another one?”
Council member Joseph Sayler told Hawkins that the two dates were really for the benefit of Mohr. By not granting the extension, all the town would be doing is making things difficult for Mohr. If the agreement doesn’t get signed and the abatement is terminated, Mohr would lose out on the chance of getting reimbursed for the $340,000 in expenses, Watson told the council.
While there are concerns, the town is not the aggrieved party. The town is just saying that the companies need to figure out what’s going on to get the abatement, Sayler said.
“They’ve blown deadlines, but it’s not really our detriment. It’s really to Mohr’s detriment and Goodyear’s detriment most likely, depending upon how much whether or not there was an actual disclosure of that liability,” Sayler said. “But that doesn’t really involve us from where I stand.”
As Mohr had an interest in the proceedings, Mohr made several attempts at communicating with Cooper in May. However, it became apparent to Bennett that there have been personnel changes in the tax department at Cooper Tire, which could have led to some issues. This was before he knew Cooper Tire had been bought by Goodyear, he said.
“I can imagine that there were some issues surrounding all of that for whatever it’s worth,” Bennett said.
The council later unanimously voted to pass the alternative resolution, giving Cooper Tire/Goodyear until July 27 to sign the agreement, or else the abatement is terminated.
