Revolving Industrial Servicing Fund (RIS Fund)
One of the financial burdens in developing industrial land is the requirement to build infrastructure with excess capacity that benefits other lands, also known as the front-ending of cost-sharable infrastructure.
A developer can recover these front-ending costs from future developers of benefiting lands. However, carrying these costs until the benefiting lands are developed creates a financial hardship for the front-ending developer: it could take years, or even decades, before the front-ending developer receives full reimbursement.
The Revolving Industrial Servicing Fund (RIS Fund) eliminates the uncertainty regarding when the front-ending developer will recover these costs by providing a guaranteed rebate, with the timing for payment of the rebate based on events that are generally under the front-ending developer's control.
The RIS Procedure
Within the servicing agreement between the front-ending developer and the City, the developer must commit to servicing land and constructing an end-user development (warehouse, office building, etc.) with an increase in taxable property assessment exceeding $10 million.
This provides an incentive for developers to seek out end-users rather than developing empty lots. In return, the City will agree to give the developer a rebate from the RIS Fund.
The value of the rebate is based on the increase in assessed value due to the services and new building(s) that the developer has committed to construct.
Within 36 months of signing a servicing agreement with the City, and upon completion of the end-user development and the cost-sharable infrastructure, the front-ending developer will qualify to receive the rebate from the RIS Fund if payments have not yet been received from other developers in the area.
RIS Fund Rebate Details
Rebates paid to developers under the RIS Fund are not a grant. They are funds that the developer is entitled to recover from future developers. The RIS Fund simply allows the developer to recover these costs sooner rather than later, and eliminates the dependency on other developers to pay back these costs.
If the City advances rebates to a developer from the RIS Fund, the City will then be entitled to recover those funds back from subsequent developers. Funds that are recovered by the City from subsequent developers will go back into the RIS Fund, which would then be re-allocated to provide rebates to other developments.
This is the ‘revolving’ component of the fund.
For additonal information on the RIS Fund, please refer to
City Policy C533A.
For More Information
Steven Jensen
| Title | Lead Development Engineer, City of Edmonton |
|---|---|
| Telephone | 780-944-7673 |
| Steve.Jensen@edmonton.ca |
