Lombard grants sales tax incentives for 2 businesses
Two new businesses coming to Lombard will get some help from the village in the form of performance-based sales tax incentives that could last up to 10 years.
Village trustees unanimously approved both incentive agreements. Village funds will not be used in advance to get the businesses started, but the companies will receive reimbursements funded exclusively by the sales tax dollars they generate after opening.
A much-anticipated Sam's Club scheduled to open next year at 611 E. Butterfield Road will receive up to $2.5 million to cover "extraordinary costs associated with the project." Those costs include site preparation, engineering, regrading, addressing buried underground utilities and completing Butterfield Road improvements requested by the Illinois Department of Transportation. The total cost of the project is estimated around $19.1 million.
Bill Heniff, the village's director of community development, said the money will come from the 1 percent of state sales taxes earmarked for the village. Each year, the village will retain the first $136,000 of sales taxes generated by Sam's. The next $400,000 will go to Sam's and any taxes above $536,000 will go to the village.
That formula will continue until the $2.5 million is reached. The village isn't required to continue giving Sam's a portion of the sales tax after 10 years, even if the $2.5 million is not reached before then.
In addition, the village board agreed to provide Bluestone Single Tenant Properties LLC with up to $587,000 to offset the cost of improving roads near a diesel fuel station the company is planning to construct later this year on the southeast corner of North Avenue and Route 53. Improvements will be made to North Avenue and Columbine Avenue and Broadview Avenue will be completely reconstructed.
"Rather than us tapping into our capital improvement costs to reconstruct Broadview, we can just earmark the revenues that are generated from this project to it," Heniff said. "They're going to do it and then they can be reimbursed."
The village will receive the first $25,000 of sales taxes generated from the business, which will include five fueling stations for trucks, 20 regular fueling stations and a 7,000-square-foot convenience store.
Subsequent sales taxes from the roughly $7 million project will be shared equally between the village and Bluestone until the $587,000 is reached or 10 years has passed.
"They're both good projects," Heniff said. "I think that they're going to add value to the community."