The applicant for a Job Opportunity Building Zone (JOBZ) business subsidy is Cross-Tech Manufacturing, owned by Scott Freiberg and Roger Roy.

Cross-Tech manufactures a rotary brush cutter. The company plans to build a 24,000-square-foot facility on a five-acre site in the Crosslake industrial area.

Cross-Tech employs 16 and will add five more employees when the new building is completed. Employees earn $12.50 an hour plus benefits worth approximately $5 an hour.

Under JOBZ, a company receives a tax exemption. However, a business must maintain its employment goals to maintain the tax benefits.

At the present time, Crosslake does not have a JOBZ zone. To obtain the zone, the city is asking the city of Pequot Lakes to modify its JOBZ property and allow Crosslake to have 10 acres of JOBZ property. There is no land exchange. If approved, the JOBZ in Pequot Lakes would be 10 acres smaller and a new JOBZ zone of 10 acres would be created in Crosslake.

Sheila Haverkamp, Brainerd Lakes Area Development Corp., said the city will be forfeiting taxes in exchange for a promise to bring jobs into the city. The city may ask the applicant to put up a $10,000 escrow. Any fees should be substantially less than $10,000, so the city has no expenses, other than losing the property tax for a few years.

To transfer property classification, the city must show intent to designate the requested area as a JOBZ property. A request will be sent to Pequot Lakes School Board, Pequot Lakes EDC, Pequot Lakes City Council, and Crow Wing County to adopt resolutions modifying JOBZ zones.

If approved by Pequot Lakes and the county, the Crosslake council will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. Sept. 8 to formalize the JOBZ zone and business subsidy agreement.