LORAIN — Council approved an agreement Monday night with beverage company Heidelberg Distributing Co. that spelled out payroll tax rebates offered to the company so they would come to Lorain.

The agreement with Heidelberg will give the beer and wine distributor 15 years of tax rebates. For the first seven years of the agreement, the company will get a 30 percent payroll tax rebate, a rate of 25 percent during the next four years and 20 percent back during the final four years.

Heidelberg plans a $5 million expansion into Ford Motor Co.’s old Lorain Assembly Plant that is expected to create 50 new jobs.

In related business, Council’s Finance Committee will meet Monday at 5:30 p.m. to discuss whether to give a similar payroll tax rebate to keep Emerson Power in Lorain, said Doug Rangel, director with Lorain Development.

“We’ve been working with Emerson for a long time,” said Service Director Robert Gilchrist. “We’re ecstatic we’ve reached a point where we are talking about job retention in theory, but it’s actually come to pass.”

In addition, the city must swap land the city owns directly in front of Emerson’s Kansas Avenue building with land Emerson owns south of the Lorain Metropolitan Housing Authority’s building so Emerson will have a parking lot next to its building.

Emerson currently employs 226 people in higher-paying jobs such as engineering and technical support, Rangel said, adding that they are consolidating all their employees into one building and plan to sell two others they still own along Kansas Avenue near state Route 611.

The seven-year agreement with Emerson caps its rebate at $500,000 in any given year. Emerson also must maintain a minimum of 140 employees to be eligible for the rebate.

Contact Alicia Castelli at 329-7144 or acastelli@chroniclet.com.

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