A winery, brewery and event center in Seymour will receive funding to enhance its onsite accommodations.

In order to bring a project to add overnight cabins and recreational vehicle slips at Chateau de Pique Winery and Brewery to fruition, Parkland Inc. requested a three-year $2.159 million tax abatement from the city.

During Monday night’s meeting, the city council approved the statement of benefits and a resolution for the tax abatement both on 6-1 votes. Councilman Drew Storey cast the lone nay vote for each.

Dan Davis, representing the Jackson County portion of the South Central Indiana Talent Region team for the Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative program, said the project will result in 18 overnight cabins and 45 RV slips to be developed on a few acres in the southeast corner of the 47.1-acre property at 6361 N. County Road 760E.

Design is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2023, and construction would begin in the third quarter of next year and end toward the end of 2024.

The first year of the tax abatement would be 100%, estimated to save Parkland $60,487 in property taxes. Year 2 tax abatement would be 66%, meaning the city would collect $20,565 in property taxes on the development. Year 3 would be abated at 33% with the city collecting $40,526 in tax dollars.

Davis said Parkland currently pays the city $876.20 on property taxes on an annual basis, and a company official said the tax abatement would result in a good return on the city’s investment.

“Investment is zero. You’re going to get a lot more tax money out of it than the city is now,” Davis told the council. “And the visitor center will have the ability to start earning innkeeper tax on those 18 overnight cabins. … The county can’t collect innkeeper tax, I believe, on camping sites, so those won’t net any new money in terms of tax dollars, but those people have to buy gas and shop and eat somewhere, as well.”

Jerry Johnson, a certified public accountant, said he has been involved with the Pardieck family, Parkland and its subsidiaries for at least 35 years. He said this RV park would bring tourism to the city and county.

According to the statement of benefits, this project would retain three employees with salaries of $35,000 and add five jobs with salaries of $35,000. There is potential to add seasonal employees.

In 2021, a land use variance request from Parkland received a favorable recommendation from the Seymour Plan Commission and then was approved by the Seymour Board of Zoning Appeals.

The property was zoned R-1 (single-family residential), R-S (single-family residential zoning district), C-1 (neighborhood commercial) and I-1 (light industrial). The land use variance was requested due to C-1 and I-1 not allowing RV parks, but they could be allowed as conditional use under the other zoning designations.

Parkland worked with a surveyor and an engineer to submit an engineering and design plan for the RV park.

Then once the READI program was introduced, Chateau de Pique was among the six projects in Jackson County included.

The South Central Indiana Talent Region team learned it would receive $30 million in grants from the new state program for economic development projects throughout Jackson, Bartholomew and Jennings counties and Edinburgh. Six of the 30 projects that were funded are in Jackson County and total just more than $7 million.

Davis said the Chateau de Pique project requires a mix of local government, READI and private match funds. The project will be receiving $360,000 in READI grant funding to be applied to the cabin portion. Overall, the project has a $4.1 million price tag.