A deal that could help bring athenhealth to the renovated Seaholm Power Plant got a close look Jan. 23 by Austin City Council.

Because the city's economic climate is so positive, Councilwoman Laura Morrison said she was not sure if the city needs to incentivize businesses to come to Austin.

"I've supported almost all of the economic incentive deals that we've looked at. This may well be the time for me to draw the line in the sand," Morrison said.

The recommended development grant to athenahealth pays approximately $250 per job created per year, during 10 years, totaling in an incentive of $679,500. The city expects the total net economic benefit from the project to be approximately $1.67 million.

Athenahealth is a company that provides cloud-based health information technology services to help the flow of patient information. According to city documents, the company would bring 607 new jobs to its the proposed research and development facility. Athenahealth also intends to hire 90 percent of the new employees locally.

The company already has 36 employees in Austin at offices in The Domain.

One of Morrison's concerns about the agreement centered around the new employees Athenahealth is looking to hire. She said Austin has a shortage of software developers in the city, and she worried about where the company will find its new employees.

"I'm concerned about the effect of folks going out and plucking people from other companies," Morrison said.

Economic Development Department staff said the possibility of such a scenario is minimized because athenahealth's hiring will be spread out during 10 years.

Several council members also voiced some hesitancy in financially supporting an office use for the space when the original vision for the former power plant focused predominantly on retail or public-focused space. The office use for the space was allowed based market pressures.

Councilwoman Kathie Tovo asked about the viability of the former power plant as office space rather than uses more dependent on the public.

"I really wanted to see a much more public use in that site, and it would seem to me to have an extraordinary place to have retail and other kinds of uses that rely on traffic from the public," Tovo said.

Rosato said the former power plant building is an amazing space, but it's not the type of building that is suited to every business looking for office space.

"There are only a certain number of companies that can embrace that space and use it because of it's architectural challenges," Rosato said. "What makes it special is the open nature of it, and so there are only a certain sector of companies that would find it usable. It's been a challenge."

Councilman Chris Riley asked if the public would still be allowed to have access to the building and what that experience would be like.

Kevin Johns, director of the city's Economic Development Department, said the former power plant is required to have space that will be open to the public. Some of that space could take the form of views into the turbine hall of the building, a coffee or juice bar, restaurant or retail space and public art displays.

City Council is set to have a public hearing and discuss the agreement further at its Jan. 30 meeting.