Tax appeal could doom Navistar headquarters move

Lisle's pot sweetener in the deal to move Navistar's corporate headquarters to the village is turning sour.

Navistar is looking to move its operations to the former Alcatel-Lucent property at 2600 Warrenville Road, which is currently valued at $109 million. However, Alcatel-Lucent recently appealed its property tax bill and is seeking to have the property's value reduced to $31.5 million. That number is closer to the $33 million price tag in the Navistar deal, according to the paperwork filed in the appeal.

If Alcatel-Lucent is successful, that greatly reduces the value for Lisle in creating a Tax Increment Financing District for the property. Such districts freeze tax rates for more than two decades and allow municipalities greater oversight in the expenditure of property tax dollars generated within those areas.

"I think the bottom line is the very appeal of the assessment took us by surprise," said Lisle Village Manager Gerald Sprecher. "Does it influence discussion of the TIF? Absolutely. It's safe to say the TIF's future is uncertain because of this move."

Officials from Navistar could not be reached for comment about the impact the appeal has on their end of things.

A decision on the property tax appeal is not expected until the second or third week of March, said DuPage County Supervisor of Assessments Craig Dovel. That adds yet another wrinkle in the ongoing saga of the Navistar move.

"It changes the rules and the playing field," said Lisle Mayor Joe Broda.

Lisle officials said they won't bother crunching a new set of numbers on the deal until after the appeal is decided. But there is a lingering March 30 deadline to get a land deal done that transfers control of a 3-acre ring road around the property from the DuPage County Forest Preserve District to Lisle and the county in exchange for $1.5 million. Lisle and the county intend to give Navistar control of the road in exchange for the economic development benefits created by the headquarter relocation.

Forest preserve commissioners said Tuesday after learning about the tax appeal that they weren't inclined to offer an extension to the deal with the county and Lisle.

"It would take a miracle to get this deal done by the end of March," said commissioner Mike Formento. "And miracles don't happen in government that way."

Forest preserve commissioners have been critical of Navistar's move after neighbors complained the company was going to build a diesel-engine testing facility and store large quantities of diesel fuel near the homes and Danada Forest Preserve.

"I think the board has never felt that we've gotten full information from anyone else in this deal and that we were never included in the circle to know what's going on," said Dewey Pierotti, the forest preserve commission president. "We're not going to extend any agreement until we know what we're agreeing to and what the use of the property is actually going to be."