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Hoffman Estates closing in on elusive hardware store

Hoffman Estates may at last have found its long-sought hardware store.

Village trustees Monday unanimously recommended a Cook County tax incentive be granted to a storefront at the southwest corner of Golf and Higgins roads for an Ace Hardware.

The prospective tenant told officials that if all else goes as planned, the business could be open the first week of April.

So long has a hardware store topped residents' requests that village board members and staff had a difficult time remaining objective about the news.

"I think everyone up here is excited about the possibility of a hardware store," said Trustee Karen Mills, who chairs the planning, building and zoning committee. "It's something we've been looking forward to for a long time."

Despite the public demand, Economic Development Director Kevin Kramer said finding a hardware store has remained on his to-do list for years because of the narrow profit margins combined with the area's taxes and rents.

The problem is shared by neighboring Schaumburg, where a portion of the new store's clientele is likely to come from, Kramer said.

"It's across the street," he added. "Retailers don't look at boundaries, they look at the hole in the doughnut."

The store would be located in a strip mall next to a Hertz car rental and Sherwin-Williams Paints store. It's the building's landlord who must apply for the tax incentive.

"The owner was great," Kramer said. "When we met with him he asked, 'What do you want to see?'"

The Cook County Class 7C incentive reduces the property taxes paid on the site for five years - to roughly 55 percent the normal amount over that period, Kramer said. And it can be extended for five more years after the first three years.

Though a possible request for a sales tax break from Hoffman Estates was also mooted, none has been filed and the project is not considered to be contingent on such an incentive, village officials said.

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