PROVIDENCE — A Connecticut food-distribution company planning to move to the city is under consideration for state tax breaks of more than $200,000 in its first year of operation here and could receive thousands more in financial incentives after its arrival.

On Monday, the board of directors of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation will review requests to grant “project status” to United Natural Foods Inc.’s (UNFI:Nasdaq) relocation work. The move would qualify the company for a lower corporate tax rate under the state’s job development act and to receive a grant from the state’s renewable-energy fund.

With project status comes a break on the state’s sales tax for purchases of certain goods related to a new development.

Saul Kaplan, the EDC’s executive director, said last week that his office would ensure that the state “comes out positive” with the financial tradeoff it will make to draw the company to Rhode Island.

United Natural’s project also is under consideration for a tax deal from the city that would phase in property taxes on the company’s portion of the massive American Locomotive Works development on Valley Street, according to Mayor David N. Cicilline. He said he expects the City Council to take up the matter next month.

The food-distribution company announced last week that it will move its headquarters from Dayville, Conn., to Providence in May, bringing 150 workers to the city.

The company, which distributes natural and organic foods, also plans to expand its Providence work force to 260 employees, according to EDC documents.

The tax incentives are based, in part, on the number of full-time jobs the company brings to the state over the next three years. The incentives would require approvals by the General Assembly and the Providence City Council.

According to EDC estimates, UNFI would receive:

•A sales tax break of $189,574 on the $4.1 million it expects to spend on its ALCO headquarters.

•A corporate income tax break worth at least $120,000 annually.

•Up to $700,000, spread over 10 years, to pay its portion of installing electricity-producing solar-energy system at ALCO.

The company has leased 52,560 square feet of office space at the massive project, and will be the largest commercial tenant thus far at the mixed-use project. The EDC, a quasi-state agency, has its offices there.

The company anticipates an initial Providence work force of 157 full-time employees, then adding another 103 full-time jobs by 2011, according to EDC documents. Salaries will range from about $27,000 to more than $310,000.

Ultimately, the company’s Providence payroll will top $19.5 million, generating annual personal income taxes of $491,943. The EDC predicts that United’s workers will generate nearly $1.4 million in state income taxes in the first three years after the company’s arrival.

However, the EDC estimate makes no account for Rhode Islanders who may now work for United, and thus, already pay income taxes to this state, or for Rhode Islanders who may take jobs at the company after it moves to Providence.

Additionally, the EDC pegs total construction payroll at $1.7 million over 12 months, generating another $47,000 in income taxes to the state.

The EDC characterizes the financial risk to the state of granting the sales tax break succinctly: “None.”

“The revenue estimates from direct jobs exceed the estimated sales tax abatement, further without this project, the expenditures being exempted from sales tax would not take place,” according to an EDC draft summary.

The corporate income tax break under consideration would cut United’s tax rate from the statutory 9 percent to 6 percent by 2011. Based on an estimated annual taxable income of $4 million, the rate reduction would drop its potential annual tax bill from about $360,000 to a bit more than $240,000.

Because United now pays no taxes to the state, the EDC considers the rate reduction “revenue neutral.”

Keeping in line with its environmental bent, the company will join with ALCO developer Struever Bros., Eccles & Rouse to build a solar-energy system capable of annually producing at least 222,000 kilowatts of electricity at the Valley Street complex. United has a larger such system at its Dayville facility, which generates nearly three times as much power.

The ALCO system would cost $1.5 million to build.

United is seeking a grant from the state Renewable Energy Fund for up to $70,000 annually for 10 years to pay for the company’s share of the solar work. Struever will pay for its share of the work with a 30-percent federal tax credit and cash.

pgrimald@projo.com