I swear, half the job of reporting on the city’s tax increment financing schemes is learning how to read between the lines in the propaganda the city issues about them.
“In the spirit of creating a truly new company, MillerCoors had to select a location for their new headquarters,” the overview goes on. Company leaders didn’t want to stay in Milwaukee (home to Miller) or Denver (home to Coors) because “it was felt that location in either city would suggest that one of the partners had a controlling interest in the new company.”
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They flirted with Dallas but settled on Chicago because it’s “a true international city” with “an attractive talent pool,” “unique business resources,” “good schools,” and “easy commutes.” (I guess no one with MillerCoors, or for that matter the Department of Community Development, has ever had to depend on the CTA.)
But this problem goes back to the founding of the LaSalle Central TIF, where—thanks to gaping loopholes in TIF law—the city managed to stretch the definition of blight to cover one of the hottest real estate markets in town. By 2030, when this district mercifully expires, the city expects it will have siphoned off at least $1.5 billion in property taxes from the schools, parks, police, fire, and other needy public services. City planners have said they will use the cash to, among other things, renovate the old architectural landmarks on LaSalle that are becoming out of date.
According to the city, the $6 million TIF subsidy represents about 27 percent of the $21.8 million MillerCoors will spend to rehabilitate their space. The project overview does not explain why it will cost that much to rebuild a structure that was rebuilt only two years ago—without any TIF assistance, which highlights the lack of analysis in the city plan of why this rehab qualifies for help. It’s hard to see a Fortune 500 company that made a $54 million profit the last three months of 2008 as a hardship case.
MillerCoors has agreed to give back to Chicago in another way: it says it will spend some of its money on fencing and landscaping for the river walk just west of the building. I don’t think that will make up for the full $6 million either—but given the cost overruns on the rest of the river walk, you never know.v
