Mount Prospect OKs break for Alter Group

Mount Prospect trustees voted this week to recommend a property tax incentive for The Alter Group, which is constructing two industrial buildings near the northwest corner of Route 83 and Algonquin Road.

Cook County has the final say on whether to grant Class 6b status to the firm, which has offices in Skokie.

Robert Welsh, representing The Alter Group, said the buildings would function primarily as a freight forwarding facilities. With the expansion of O'Hare International Airport, businesses are relocating from the Bensenville and Elk Grove Village area to the north side of the airport, he said.

The two office/warehouse facilities, with addresses at 1660 and 1780 Wall St., total 256,000 square feet and would cost $12 million to build. An estimated 300-plus jobs would be at the site.

The Alter Group has owned the land for about 30 years and tried over time to develop projects.

"Nothing has quite seemed to be the proper fit," he said.

However, he said, the tax incentive is needed.

"Taxes in DuPage County, in Lake County, in Will County for properties of this type run anywhere from 90 cents per square foot to about $1.30. Taxes on this particular facility without the 6b would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $3.40 to $3.50, which would render it economically not feasible," he said.

Even with the incentive, real estate taxes should increase from $143,000 for the two properties to $380,000.

"We look at it as a win-win in that sense, and then additionally, there would be significant employment that would be generated, given the nature of this almost 24-hour-type operation," with freight coming in from overseas and the need to move it.

Trustees were supportive of the incentive, content that Alter had proven its need.

Commercial properties in Cook County are assessed at 38 percent of their market value. With the 6B incentive, they would be assessed at 16 percent during the first 10 years, 23 percent during the 11th year and 30 percent during the 12th year.