Lion Electric awaits local tax incentives

The Lion Electric Company is pursuing local tax incentives for the vehicle manufacturing plant it plans to open in Joliet.

Joliet officials already have been meeting with Lion Electric, which will also seek incentives from Will County, the Troy School District 30-C and the Minooka School District 201.

The incentives would come on top of a state EDGE incentive program that would provide Lion Electric with $7.9 million in tax credits if it creates 742 jobs in three years after taking possession of its future manufacturing facility for electric trucks and buses now under construction on Youngs Road near the Joliet border with Channahon.

The incentive package under consideration is similar to past property tax abatements provided to industrial projects, said Doug Pryor, vice president for economic development of the Will County Center for Economic Development.

“Generally, we’d recommend a property tax abatement of three to five years at 50%.” Pryor said.

The CED uses a scoring system to determine incentives, and the Lion Electric project is likely to score at five years, Pryor said.

“It is only advisory in nature,” he said. “Each taxing body would have to approve the abatement.”

The proposed incentives likely will be brought within the next two months to the taxing bodies having the highest impact on the Lion Electric property tax bill, Pryor said. That would be Joliet, Will County, Troy School District and Minooka High School District.

The abatement program has been used less frequently in recent years as more and more warehouse operators have moved into the county and the need to incentivize them has diminished.

But Lion Electric promises a new avenue of economic development with a target of hiring at least 742 workers at its electric bus and truck factory and production goals of 20,000 vehicles a year.

“It is a very exciting project,” Pryor said.

The CED already is looking for opportunities to attract potential Lion Electric suppliers to Will County sites in the vicinity of the future Lion Electric plant, something economic development professionals describe as a cluster of like-industries.

“Lion does have a network of suppliers that they work with,” Pryor said. “We definitely are looking for a cluster related to this facility.”

Joliet Economic Development Director Derek Conley confirmed that the city has met with representatives from Lion Electric and described potential incentives in line with what Pryor mentioned.

“The city and Lion Electric has had discussions regarding incentives that would be offered, but we’re still in negotiations,” Conley said. “The incentives being discussed are pretty standard with what we’ve discussed with other industrial users.”