An economic incentive package approved by trustees Monday will bring a new grocery store into the village.
The Jewel store in Orchard Square Plaza is closing early next year, and Sterk’s Super Foods, a small grocery chain with stores in the south suburbs and Indiana, will move in, rehab the building and open.
The incentive package, under which the village will share tax revenue with the store, will enable the parent company, SLC Foods, to renovate the building.
Without the package to ease the cost of taxes and major work on a store built in the 1970s, Sterk’s move to Park Forest would have been unaffordable, Village Manager Janet Muchnik said.
“The numbers didn’t work,” she said. “So we’re sharing the sales tax with them.”
For the first 10 years of the 25-year agreement, the store will keep 75 percent of sales tax revenue, with the village taking the remaining 25 percent. For the next 10 years, the store and village will split the revenue 50-50. During the last five years, the store will keep 25 percent and the village will get 75 percent.
The store is expected to open next fall.
In a related matter, trustees said that they are applying for a grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs to help pay for rehabbing the Jewel building.
If the village gets a grant, the sales tax giveback can be reduced by the grant amount, Muchnik said.