Mt. Prospect board gives lab a tax break

The Mount Prospect village board approved giving a pharmaceutical laboratory a Cook County tax break Tuesday so the company could open a Mount Prospect office.

Once the paperwork is finalized, Xttrium Laboratories, will open in the former Northfield Laboratories site at 1200 Business Center Drive in the Kensington Business Center. On May 8, Northfield owners terminated all employees at the facility and ceased production. The 106,000-square-foot building has been vacant ever since, according to Michael R. Lippner, Xttrium's vice president of finance.

On Tuesday, the village board unanimously endorsed Xttrium's application to the Cook County assessor's office for a Class 6b tax incentive, which would lower the building's assessment level from 25 percent of market value to 10 percent for a 10-year period.

"This is a wonderful building and a wonderful industrial park," said Mount Prospect Trustee Steven Polit. "We do appreciate you coming to Mount Prospect."

Chicago-based Xttrium is one of the leading suppliers of antiseptics to hospitals and doctors. It will bring 110 new jobs to Mount Prospect, according to information Lippner passed out to the village board. Those jobs will have an annual salary of $37,000.

The company will spend $3.5 million to buy the former Northfield building and $2.5 million on machinery and equipment. Xttrium will open its new office within the next six months, Lippner said.