Tax-sharing deal brings Tractor Supply Co. to Wauconda
A store selling everything from clothes to camping equipment will move into long-vacant retail space in a Wauconda shopping center - but it took a tax-sharing agreement with the village board to seal the deal.
Tennessee-based Tractor Supply Co. is set to lease more than 25,000 square feet in the Wauconda Crossings center, which is at the southwest corner of routes 12 and 176. The store is expected to open in March 2018, according to village documents.
The space last was occupied by a Dominick's Finer Foods that closed in 2004, about a decade before the entire Dominick's chain shut down.
A self-storage facility called Extra Space Storage took over most of the former supermarket building in fall 2016. Tractor Supply Co. will operate west of the storage business.
Trustee Adam Schlick is enthusiastic about the retailer's pending arrival.
"Anytime you can bring a new business to the village and fill a vacant building, especially one that was empty as long as Dominick's was, you have to be excited," he said.
To lure Tractor Supply to Wauconda, the village board on Tuesday approved a 25-year tax-sharing agreement with the company.
For the store's first 12 months of operations, the village will return to the company 75 percent of its portion of the sales tax the store generates.
In subsequent years, the village will rebate 50 percent of its portion.
Most goods purchased in Wauconda require a 7-percent sales tax. The village's portion of that is about 1 percentage point.
Although the deal reduces the tax revenue the village will retain from the store, Schlick said that sum "is certainly better" than the goose egg generated over the last 13 years.
Landing Tractor Supply brings more than additional sales-tax revenue to Wauconda, officials said. It means local jobs and hopefully more consumer traffic.
Trustee Linda Starkey thinks Tractor Supply could act as a "catalyst" for more development in that area.
Tractor Supply sells clothes, pet supplies, lawn care equipment, hunting gear, camping equipment and many other products.
The chain has more than 1,600 stores in 49 states, including a suburban location in Carpentersville.
According to the company, that store has reported approximately $4 million in annual sales, Interim Village Administrator Brad Fink said.
Schlick called Tractor Supply "a perfect fit" for Wauconda and the region.
"Our area (is) an active community with ample outdoor recreation opportunities," he said. "I also think there is a great deal of agriculture in the area, both working farms and farmette variety, that will enjoy having this type of retailer in Wauconda."