When City Council officials slammed the book shut on a proposed tax incentive Monday to help Borders Books and Music move to a better location, it had more than the just struggling store in mind.
The city didn’t want to set a precedent of encouraging local businesses to ask the city for help moving across town, a Borders official said Tuesday.
If businesses want to move nearer to the Church Street Plaza, they will have to do it themselves, aldermen said.
“In my mind, it’s ludicrous,” Ald. Steven Bernstein (4th) said. “They don’t need an incentive to move to one of the best locations.”
In a 5-3 decision, the council rejected the proposal for a 40 percent tax break — estimated at $150,000 over five years — that Borders would receive when the chain bookstore relocates to Church Street Plaza, 1701 Maple Ave., in June.
The council voted down the tax break after thinking about how other local business would react, said Cheryl Levine, director of real estate for the central and southeast regions of Borders Group Inc. If the city gave a rebate to Borders, she said, it would also have to give one to the store’s competitors, like Barnes and Noble.
William Stafford, Evanston’s finance director, questioned why the bookstore needed the subsidy. However, he said economic development incentives have been used before.
The Home Depot, 2201 Oakton St., received $2 million and $1.6 million was awarded to Dominick’s, 1910 Dempster St.
The Borders tax break originally aimed to encourage the change in location, Levine said.
City officials suggested the move after Borders representatives told them the current location, 1629 Orrington Ave., was unprofitable and might close.
Parking issues and poor visibility at the current location were negatively affecting business, Levine said. Proximity to the Maple Avenue parking garage and the Church Street Plaza provides great potential for the store at its new location, she added.
The two-story, 22,000-square-foot facility, across from the Century Theatres, will feature modern shelving and digital sound stations for sampling music, in addition to a cafe and more than 170,000 books, music items, DVDs and periodicals.
The area around the Church Street Plaza has become the fastest-growing part of downtown since the $90 million business site opened in November 2000.
“We’re very excited,” Levine said. “Being in the No. 1 location in downtown Evanston will definitely increase our business.”
Ald. Gene Feldman (9th), who supported the resolution, said at Monday’s council meeting that the rebate would have been approved if Borders had actually threatened to leave Evanston.
Levine told the council that because the rebate would come out of future sales tax revenue — estimated at twice the revenues of the original location — it would not affect the city’s current budget crunch.
Borders’ move this summer will open up a large vacancy at the Orrington location. Bill Mass, vice president of corporate services for Golub and Company, which owns the building, said no new tenant has been secured to replace the vacancy Borders would leave behind.
“We looked at redeveloping the site or re-tenanting the site,” Golub said.
The Daily’s Andy Nelson and Dalia Naamani-Goldman contributed to this report.
