Duluth Trading Co. store planned near Sears Centre

The foreclosed site of a proposed restaurant campus in Hoffman Estates' Prairie Stone Business Park might instead become the first Illinois location of a Duluth Trading Co. store by mid-2016.

The 26-year-old company, based in Belleville, Wisconsin, makes workwear and tradesman's gear, which it sells online, through catalogs and at existing stores in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

The proposed 7-acre site at the northeast corner of Pratum Avenue and Hoffman Boulevard by the Sears Centre Arena also would be the first newly built store for Duluth Trading, company officials said. The current stores are all in Main Street locations and other older buildings.

And the plan for the Hoffman Estates store is to give it the look of a large, rural feed store while still making it recognizably retail even to motorists passing along the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway.

While the plan still needs to go through a formal review by the village, elected officials on the planning, building and zoning committee Monday gave a pending recommendation to an economic incentive agreement.

Assistant Village Manager for Development Services Mark Koplin explained that the agreement is sought because the bank that held the land in foreclosure would sell Duluth Trading only the entire site - not just the 2 acres the company wanted for its 14,500-square foot building and 130 parking spaces.

At least one other business could fit on the site to the north, and the village has agreed to assist in marketing it for another store or restaurant.

But in the meantime, the economic incentive agreement would rebate Duluth Trading $130,000 in sales tax over six years, Once it's fully up and running, the store is expected to generate $140,000 per year in sales tax for the village.

Other aspects of the incentive include $20,000 in bond funds for curb cuts along the two roads, $12,400 for grading and stormwater management, and an enterprise zone sales tax exemption of $35,000.

Village Trustee Gayle Vandenbergh abstained from the otherwise unanimous recommendation as she works for W-T Engineering, the company doing the site plan.