Why Des Plaines officials signed off on proposed $3.5 million tax break for local company
A family-owned Des Plaines company with deep Chicago-area roots is in line to receive a property tax break that could save it $3.5 million.
Officials with Columbus Vegetable Oils, 30 E. Oakton St., say the deal will help the company afford about $3.4 million in facility improvements that will result in an additional $679,000 in property tax revenue for various area governmental agencies over nine years.
"Even with a lower assessment level, all of the taxing bodies ... still come out ahead," said John Carlisle, Des Plaines' community and economic development director.
The Des Plaines City Council on Monday formally supported reducing the assessment rate for the roughly 10-acre site. It'll be up to the Cook County Board to approve the tax cut.
The company that became Columbus Vegetable Oils launched in the 1930s as a grocery store on Chicago's West Side, city documents indicate. It later expanded into a father-and-son, can-making operation called the Eagle Can Co.
During World War II, the company evolved once again to meet demand for cooking oil when it became scarce, becoming the Columbus Packing Co.
The company now makes a variety of cooking oils and other products under the Butcher Boy name and other brands.
Columbus Vegetable Oils moved into the 330,000-square-foot facility on Oakton Street in 2008.
The regular assessment rate for industrial property in Cook County is 25% of the fair market value, but the county can reduce the rate for 12 years. Single, 12-year renewals after the initial period ends are possible.
Cook County activated a tax break for the Columbus Vegetable Oils property in 2008, with Des Plaines' support. The deal expired in 2020 and wasn't promptly renewed, though, so the tax rate returned to 25%.
Because of the three-year lapse, the break now being sought would reduce the tax rate for nine years.
"Those three years would just be lost," Carlisle told the city council Monday.
The break would reduce the property's assessment rate to 10% through 2029. The rate would climb to 15% in 2030, to 20% in 2031 and to 25% in 2032, where it would remain.
If the county approves the tax break, the company plans to make extensive improvements to the Oakton Street facility, including facade changes, a new laboratory, lighting upgrades and new office space, documents indicate.
Those investments should make the property more valuable, which in turn would generate more tax revenue, even if the property is being assessed at a lower-than-usual level, Carlisle said.
Company officials also have pledged to hire dozens of additional workers at the Oakton headquarters if the deal is approved.
Without the break, the firm might have to freeze hiring, reduce staff or relocate, a lawyer for the company said in a letter to the city.
Columbus Vegetable Oils is in the city's 3rd Ward, and its council representative, Alderman Sean Oskerka, was among those supporting the plan. The proposed facade upgrades will improve the look of the area, he said, and the additional employees will benefit other Des Plaines businesses, he said.