With my thanks to EDC President Greg Bedalov, from his quarterly presentation to council: where our sales tax revenue comes from, why we’re in a budget vise that’s sqeezing us hard, and what’s being done to ease the pain…
The first chart on the right shows DG Sales Tax Revenues for 2008 broken down by category. If you click on the image you will get a larger easier to read version. 1 out of every 4 sales tax dollars comes from either car sales, or gas sales. You’ve seen the difference along Ogden Avenue this year. Luxury Motors south lot, once jammed with sales tax revenue producing autos, had one lonely car when I drove by yesterday. A planned expansion and redevelopment for the used car dealer on the west side is on hold. Some of the dealers look to be doing fine, and Zielger is ramping up their operations, so not all is bleak.
We have tough competition from Woodridge’s Seven Bridges developments, and from the Promenade Bolingbrook Town Center, and from Lombard’s aggressive expansion at Yorktown. Compare those to two DG retail centers on the northeast and northwest corner of 75th and Highland (Main), and you get the idea. Our neighbors might not draw DG shoppers away, but they’re keeping more of their own shoppers at home with newer, nicer shopping areas.
There’s constant talk of how ratty 63rd and Woodward looks, but the sales tax potential for DG is at 75th & Highland, along Butterfield Road., and along Ogden Avenue. It’s a matter of scale and size. Our big retail areas could use some refreshing, updated layout, all kinds of thing that just need money and a good economy to do. The village staff, the EDC and the COC are working on it.
This shows where the hurt is. Our sales tax revenues have slipped back to 1995 levels. As our neighbors have ramped up efforts to modernize and develop new shopping, the results are having an impact. Our main areas that generate sales tax revenue are behind the times, and as you can see, behind the curve.
Bolingbrook in particular has been very aggressive and successful in bringing in mega-box retailers. Along Weber Road they have a Builder’s Square and a Lowe’s within spitting distance of each other (and a Menard’s on 53). Along Boughton is the Ikea. Lombard has revamped and built out Yorktown, adding a restaurant centric mix of stores along with a new Hyatt that, when I drove by a couple night ago, looks as empty as Building #3 at Acadia on the Green (which I hear is selling).
This graph was not in the EDC report. Comparative sale tax numbers tell the story. Everyone felt the slowdown last year, with Bolingbrook’s rapid expansion over the last five years leaving them way ahead on revenues. Lombard added a “Yorktown Tax” near the end of 2007 that’s valid to include. the dashed line shows that revenue subtracted. Woodridge has incremental growth, as Seven Bridges’ build out slow-down starting in 2008, flattening their revenue growth curve.
Can the EDC, the Village, the Chamber of Commerce, and Downtown Management bend the curve back up? Bedalov’s presentation contained the classic SWOT analysis that sorted out the situation, and he touched on some areas that the village may want to consider moving forward, which would give DG a wider choice of options to deploy when marketing the village to the commercial and manufacturing sectors:
Business Enterprise Zones (BEZ): Begun in 1982, the lllinois Enterprise Zone Program, like a TIF District, is designed to stimulate economic growth and neighborhood revitalization in economically depressed areas of the state. Unlike a TIF District, the mechanisms are state and local tax incentives, regulatory relief, and improved governmental services. There aren’t any in DuPage County. Ellsworth Business Park might be an area that could benefit from becoming a BEZ, making it more attractive to new business, and helping existing concerns already located there.
Business Improvement Districts (BID): In one sense we already have a BID, and that’s the DMG. The Downtown Management Group and the Village cooperate to collect funds, and a Board of Directors direct activities to enhance and improve the District, like the marketing efforts DMG Director Linda Kunze works on with Bedalov to attract business to the CBD, and the first central garbage collection area built this year. The BID is a very flexible tool and could be used to tackle areas like the Hines Lumberyard, Rogers along the tracks from Pershing to Fairview, and the aforementioned south side shopping centers at 75th and Highland.
Facilitated property acquisition and transfer: This would emphatically not be anything like the sucker-punch the village took over AOTG. The village can continue to deploy it’s Bond Cap Authority to help create some risk-free source funding for private businesses to the tune of about $4 million each year, and the EDC is already ramping into a full court press finding takers for open space, and putting together incentives in coordination with village staff. The two new grocers coming to town are an example of that creative process.
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