North Aurora car dealership seeks $1 million in sales tax aid
The Gerald Auto Group is seeking a $1 million sales tax inducement from the village to expand one of its dealerships at the North Aurora Auto Mall.
It would help pay for a $2.1 million addition to the Hyundai dealership at 209 Hansen Blvd., according to village officials.
Gerald Auto Group has the Hyundai, Kia, Subaru and Nissan dealerships at the mall, which is off Orchard Road north of Interstate 88. It also uses a former car dealership building as a central office for the company.
Gerald has told village officials it expects Hyundai sales to increase, in particular as more models in the Genesis line are rolled out in the next few years.
The dealership does not have enough space to work on cars now, and is doing some Hyundai repairs at the central office, it said. It would add 9,600 feet to its service department.
It expects if it expands the Hyundai building, it would employ another 18 people, and that the dealership would likely sell another 400 new and used cars per year, according to a letter to the village. That could result in an additional $1 million in sales tax being paid to the village over the next 12 years, according to John Dvorak, director of accounting and finance for Gerald.
“Much of our capital resources and borrowing capacity were utilized for the 2013-16 investments,” he wrote in a letter to the village.
The company bought an empty dealership for $2.6 million in 2013, another empty dealership for $2.8 million in 2015, and remodeled a third, for $5.3 million, in 2015, Dvorak said.
The rebate would be of the additional taxes. The village received $379,430 in sales taxes on the autos and auto parts in 2016, according to the letter, which was presented to the village board Monday.
The village board authorized village workers to start preparing an agreement, and bring it back for a vote.