Bass, Berry & Sims attorney Mark Mamantov provided insight for an article outlining details of the Border Region Retail Tourism Development District Act (Border Region Act), a program created in 2011 that allows for incentives “to increase tourism and the competitiveness of [Tennessee] with bordering states by empowering local governments to encourage the development of extraordinary retail or tourism facilities…” As Mark points out in the article, “[t]he key to the border region act is that developers and cities are reimbursed for money spent in border regions. And state sales tax reimbursements from border region sales can only be used for border region projects.”
The article discusses The Pinnacle project, a 200-acre commercial development in Bristol, Tennessee, which utilized incentives under the Border Region Act to entice retailers such as Bass Pro Shops, Marshall’s and Dick’s Sporting Goods to locate in Tennessee rather than neighboring states. Mark led the team at Bass, Berry & Sims that worked on the financing for that project.
The full article, “Border Tax Breaks Reel in Bass Pro in Bristol, East Ridge,” was published by the Times Free Press on February 7, 2016, and is available online.