Mount Prospect recommends tax incentive for proposed warehouse

Mount Prospect officials are backing a property tax break for a planned industrial building in the village’s Kensington Business Center.

Village trustees last week passed a resolution recommending that the Cook County Board grant the 6b property tax incentive to the owner of 1600 Bishop Court, near Kensington and Wolf roads.

The owner plans to spend $11 million to demolish the four-story building formerly occupied by the NTN USA Corp. and construct a more than 97,000-square-foot industrial building. They expect to attract a warehousing, manufacturing or distribution business as tenant.

The 12-year incentive would reduce the site’s property tax assessment to 10% of its market value for 10 years, then 20% for two years before returning to the normal 25%.

“We’ve probably granted about 45 since about 2000,” Mount Prospect Community Development Director Jason Shallcross told the village board last week.

Village Trustee William Grossi said the 6b program has helped Mount Prospect over the last 20 years.

“I would bet in the ‘90s the Kensington (Business) Center was about 50% occupied,” he said. Now, he said, it is more than 90% occupied.

Trustees voted 4-1 in favor of the incentive. Trustee Beth DiPrima dissented, saying she was not comfortable voting for it without knowing who would occupy the building.

Neighbors of the property have voiced concerns about the plan, citing truck traffic from a nearby delivery center. Shallcross said a distribution center on the Bishop Court site would require public hearing before the planning and zoning commission and village board approval.

szalusky@dailyherald.com