To help lure an unnamed national retailer to build a $70 million distribution center on the south side of Joliet, a City Council committee Thursday approved concessions in taxes and permits totaling about $1 million.
The three-member Land Use Committee recommended that the company–whose officials have asked that its identity not be revealed as it negotiates deals with both Joliet and somewhere in northwest Indiana–get a partial real estate tax abatement for five years and not be required to pay for a building permit.
The tax abatement is worth more than $300,000, and the building permit would be about $700,000.
The tax break, a 50 percent reduction, will be on the full council’s agenda Tuesday. Council members can grant the abatement without knowing the name of the company or can delay action until the name is revealed, officials said.
The company also is requesting tax relief from Will County, which would consider the request next month or in March, officials said, adding that by policy, the identity has to be known prior to consideration.
The company has asked officials at the Joliet/Will County Center for Economic Development to keep its name confidential. The company will be identified within a few weeks, after it decides which location to pick for the distribution center, said James Haller, Joliet’s economic development director.
Last week the school boards for Joliet Township High School District 204 and Laraway Elementary School District 70-C endorsed the proposal.
The company, which has stores in the Chicago area, is negotiating to buy a 110-acre site at Laraway Road and Illinois Highway 53. The location is a few miles southeast of the intersection of Interstate Highways 55 and 80 and is north of a rail yard that recently opened in an 1,800-acre industrial park being built in Elwood on the grounds of the former Joliet Arsenal.
The company proposes erecting a 1.2 million-square-foot building that could be expanded to 1.5 million square feet, said Aimee Ingalls, economic development manager for the Joliet/Will County center. The company could employ 195 to 295 people, officials said.
“They are really close to making a decision, and this helps as they go forward with the process of tying up loose ends,” Ingalls said after the committee vote.
Committee members noted that the distribution center would generate tax revenue without creating expenses for schools.
“If this was developed as a residential project, it would produce thousands of kids for the schools,” Councilman Tim Brophy said before the vote.
“The school districts tell us to go get commercial developments,” Haller said. “This is a high quality company, and we would be happy to have them here.”
For the 2001 tax year, the owner of the site was billed $230 for taxes to the City of Joliet, according to a city memo. For the first year after a building is constructed, the taxes due the city would be $129,421, the memo said.
With the five-year abatement, the company would only pay $64,710 a year in taxes to Joliet–a $323,552 savings for the firm. For the 2001 tax year, the site generated $764 for the Laraway district and $615 for Joliet Township.
According to city projections, the value of the land after a building is developed would produce a $428,000 tax bill for the Laraway district and a $345,000 tax bill for the Joliet high school district.
