Batavia considers tax incentive for Texas Roadhouse

Batavia aldermen are poised to approve a sales tax rebate to get a Texas Roadhouse restaurant on Randall Road.

The city council will vote Monday on a resolution authorizing a rebate of up to $230,000 for the popular steakhouse chain, which plans to build on an outlot at the Windpoint Shopping Center, 275 N. Randall Road.

Aldermen discussed the proposal and recommended approval during a committee of the whole meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 15.

The restaurant would be across the parking lot from a Kohl’s department store and a Pickled! pickleball business.

The money would come from the city’s 1% municipal sales tax. Each year, Texas Roadhouse would receive half the municipal sales tax revenue generated by the restaurant. The arrangement would last 10 years or until Texas Roadhouse receives $230,000 total, whichever comes first.

The money would help pay for water main, stormwater and sanitary sewer work for the site, plus extending a sidewalk along Randall Road, according to a memo.

Texas Roadhouse expects to invest $5 million in the site. The restaurant would employ the equivalent of 50 full-time workers.

Alderman Kevin Malone said that while he generally doesn’t like sales tax incentives, he would support this one.

“Texas Roadhouse is a great place,” he said. “They bring people in from out of town.”

Alderman Jim Fahrenbach said that in conversations on social media, people have asked why the eatery doesn’t simply move into an empty restaurant building next to the Portillo’s restaurant at 851 N. Randall. That building first housed a Bennigan’s, then a Honey-Jam Cafe, and then a Denny’s.

Scott Buening, Batavia’s community and economic development director, said the building’s owner isn’t interested in having another restaurant. He wants to build a car wash on the site instead, according Buening.

At 6,400 square feet, that building is also smaller than the proposed Texas Roadhouse, which would be 7,926 square feet.

On Wednesday, the Batavia Plan Commission and Zoning Board of Review reviewed the design for Texas Roadhouse.

The company has 755 Texas Roadhouse restaurants, including locations in Naperville and Bloomingdale.

ssarkauskas@dailyherald.com