Joliet amends MyGrain lease again to give intended tax relief

Joliet has approved a property tax rebate for MyGrain Brewing Company to accomplish the tax relief the city tried to provide a year ago.

The city, which owns the space in Union Station occupied by the brewpub, changed the lease in late 2019 to flatten out MyGrain's property tax bills. The change was made after MyGrain was hit with a nearly $18,000 property tax bill that was unexpectedly high and attributed to a lease that led to the brewpub paying higher taxes in its first years of business.

But the tax bill this year was nearly the same, city officials said.

The new lease amendment approved Tuesday by the City Council "will rebate MyGrain the portion of the property taxes which were already agreed upon in the previous amendment," states a memo to the council from interim City Manager Jim Hock.

The rebate "does not increase the incentive already negotiated; it simply achieves the agreed upon amount of property taxes via a different mechanism," Hock's memo states.

Joliet last year also gave MyGrain a year of free rent aimed at compensating the business for lost business attributed to construction outside Union Station.

Councilman Larry Hug pointed to the troubles MyGrain has faced, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, after investing $2.5 million in renovating the space before opening the brewpub in 2017.

"These people have showed a commitment to downtown Joliet," Hug said when the Economic Development Committee, which he chairs, reviewed the new lease amendment in August.