Buffalo Grove adds to incentive deal keeping electrical supplier in town

Buffalo Grove officials have added 18 months and up to $450,000 to an economic incentive package for an electrical equipment supplier that's doubling the size of its facility and hiring 80 to 100 more workers.

Under the revised agreement approved by village trustees Monday, Connexion will receive as much as $2.6 million in village sales tax revenues through 2024. Buffalo Grove officials have said they expect to collect more than $7.5 million in revenues from the company's sales by 2022.

The initial agreement, which called for a $2.25 million incentive through 2022, was approved by the village board in December to help Connexion fund a 63,000-square-foot addition to its facility at 1700 Leider Lane.

Officials said the incentive package kept the company from potentially leaving Buffalo Grove in search of a larger home, and that the deal terminates if the company leaves before 2024.

Under the plan, the village will share a percentage of sales tax revenues generated by the company every year until 2023, but only after the Buffalo Grove first receives a minimum $162,000. The village minimum is $81,000 in 2024, because the agreement expires in June of that year.

The percent shared starts at 80 percent in 2016, then falls to 70 percent in 2017, 60 percent in 2018 and then 50 percent in the remaining years.

Officials said they extended the agreement to 2024 this week as a result of Connexion obtaining a longer lease for its facility.

"The additional year and a half actually does provide a significant amount of additional sales tax revenue to the village," Buffalo Grove Community Development Director Christopher Stilling said.

The agreement establishes penalties if Connexion leaves Buffalo Grove or terminates operations during the next eight years. The company would have to pay back all the incentive money if that occurs in the first five years of the deal, and then $750,000 in year six, $375,000 in year seven and $187,000 in year eight.