The proposal to pay for infrastructure needed for the redevelopment of downtown Columbia using tax increment financing is under increased scrutiny as master developer Howard Hughes Corp. pursues the plans to create a high-density, walkable urban core.

The proposed $90 million in public financing to help fund a garage, public roadways, water and sewer lines and stormwater management has recently seen objections from a group of local development and real estate companies.

The Howard County Council is considering the package, and during a work session Tuesday, a representative of the Corporate Office Properties Trust, a Maryland-based company, said using public finds for a garage for use by surrounding office tenants was unprecedented.

“We have never seen anything like that,” said Cathy Ward, a representative of the trust.

The trust and several other companies sent a letter to the council last month calling on members to delay a potential Nov. 7 vote on the financing tool — known as a TIF for tax increment financing — because they said it unfairly benefits a private developer by funding a $51 million county-owned garage to be used for public and private uses.

Those who were party to the letter include Corporate Office Properties Trust, St. John Properties Inc., Knott Realty Group, Merritt Properties, Greenebaum Enterprises and Abrams Development Group.

Tax increment financing is public financing that earmarks future tax revenues from the development to pay back county bonds and other costs associated with the deal.

Howard County Executive Allan H. Kittleman is proposing to issue up to $170 million in bonds over three to four years to encourage the proposed downtown development.

Howard Hughes plans to invest roughly $618 million in the Crescent, a 60-acre parcel between Merriweather Post Pavilion and Broken Land Parkway, to build a high-density development. The 2,545-space proposed garage would be used by patrons of Merriweather Post Pavilion and tenants of surrounding commercial buildings.

The opposition group has expressed concern the deal would boost Howard Hughes' competitive advantage providing “significant private benefit to one real estate” company, forcing developers of other commercial and retail projects across the county to compete on an uneven playing field, according to the Sept. 30 letter.

Howard Hughes responded in an Oct. 4 letter to the council. The company's Senior Vice President John DeWolf III wrote that the group's concerns are based on “inaccurate assumptions.” He rejected an assertion from the group that Howard Hughes would be able to charge lowerrents because of the TIF deal — which opponents contended would cause vacancies in other parts of the county. Office rents in downtown are already higher than other commercial developments in the county, DeWolf wrote.

DeWolf also said viewing the parking garage in isolation of the company's private investment of $2.2 billion in the overall downtown development effort is “simply inaccurate.”

The scrutiny comes as TischlerBise, an independent consulting firm hired by the County Council, found that the countyneeds stronger justification to approve the TIF and found gaps in revenue projections and economic impact analyses.

“The bottom line is the council needs to feel comfortable moving forward,” said Carson Bise, president of TischlerBise.

Although TischlerBise found using the TIF was appropriate and the county would gain net revenue from the deal, the firm also called for a more detailed analysis to justify the need for the TIF.

County estimates suggest the downtown developmentwill provide enough tax revenue to bring in more than $400 million in net revenue over the next 35 years.

Howard Hughes Corp. has begun meeting with council members to review details of the plan, county officials said.

“I want to move this forward, but I want to do it responsibly… It's not easy to do if we're not getting the information,” Councilman Greg Fox said last week.

Carl DeLorenzo, director of policy and programming for the county, defended funding the garage with a TIF, which he emphasized is public and county-owned.

“Do we want to lose tenants by not creating the downtown environment?” DeLorenzo asked.

The downtown Columbia master plan, which establishes a framework for the area's development and guides Howard Hughes' development plan, calls for building parking garages that developers cannot shoulder the cost of alone, he said. The county will pay for roughly 25 percent of structured parking spaces in the area.

fwaseem@baltsun.com