The Gadsden City Council Tuesday approved a tax incentive package for a new business that officials said will create jobs and improve health care.
The council approved sales and use tax exemptions and non-education ad valorem tax exemptions for S&H Holdings, which will be investing just less than $5 million for equipment and a building near Gadsden Regional Medical Center.
It will not be directly affiliated with Gadsden Regional, but will complement it, Mike McCain, executive director of the Gadsden-Etowah Industrial Development Authority, said he was told by a GRMC official.
The facility will house fifth-generation radiosurgery equipment that will be part of the Novalis-Brain Lab Team and will provide research data analysis and radiosurgery treatment, officals said.
McCain said the facility will provide medical services unavailable anywhere else in the state because there is no other machine as advanced in the state.
McCain said the equipment would include a fifth-generation particle accelerator and that now only second-generation technology is available in the state.
One of the benefits, he said, is that it will produce “a very tightly focused beam” for treatment and radiosurgery of tumors to minimize damage to nearby tissues.
McCain said some local doctors are involved in the project
The project was available for tax abatements because of the research and data collections involved, he said.
McCain said the facility eventually will employ 10 people with a payroll of $455,000.
Non-educational ad valorem taxes exempted would total about $24,000 annually, and construction-related taxes abated would total $186,950 according to information given the city.
By Andy Powell
Times Staff Writer