3M, a Fortune 100 company, will move into a different DeKalb location, with operations expected to begin by early fall 2016.

City Council approved a tax abatement agreement on June 13 that will allow the reduction of property taxes on 3M’s Park 88 facility for the first five years, keeping the company in DeKalb instead of Atlanta, where it had considered moving. The 987,500 square foot building will join the current building on Macom Drive, according to the agenda for the July 13 City Council meeting. More than 250 3M employees will move to the new location.

“People have to understand that if we didn’t do the tax abatement then 3M would not build the new facility and those jobs would be moving down to a different state that would provide them incentives,” said Mark Pietrowski, DeKalb County Board chairman.

The projected DeKalb annual tax revenue from the 3M project is $50,560, and the project will generate $687,617 in property taxes during the next five years — inclusive of abatements — according to a financial examination by Paul Borek, DeKalb County Economic Development Corporation executive director.

“What you saw Monday night was a culmination of the process,” said Economic Development Coordinator Jennifer Diedrich. “Each of the taxing bodies has an opportunity to say yay or nay whether or not they want to support the project. And in this case it met all of the guidelines and it was very stream lined and easy to move through the process. I didn’t receive any objections from the taxing bodies.”

The lease for 3M’s second location at Barber Greene Road and Wirsing Parkway will not be renewed, leaving the facility there available for other companies after the DeKalb County Economic Development Corporation is confident that it will be able to attract new users, Diedrich said.