Darien Paying $750K to Keep Home Depot in Town

Darien officials agreed earlier this month to pay a $750,000 economic incentive to keep Home Depot from leaving town. 

According to the City Council's Feb. 4 meeting minutes, the lease for Home Depot, located at 2101 75th St. in the Darien Towne Center, was set to expire in April 2014. Owners told city officials that they would leave Darien unless that could match the lease term of another property owner outside of the city. 

"It would have been a huge loss for the community," city administrator Bryon Vana said in an interview with The Chicago Tribune. "It would be difficult to find another business to fill that space."

Home Depot generates between $560,000 and $660,000 in sales taxes to the city each year, according to City Council minutes. RPAI (Retail Properties of America, Inc.) told Darien officials that it would be difficult to find another business to lease the building in Home Depot's absence. 

Write a review of Darien's Home Depot in our business directory. 

So to keep Home Depot here, city officials agreed to pay RPAI $750,000 over 11 years. They will receive $68,000 per year for the first nine years of the agreement and then receive $69,000 for the remaining two years.

That money will come directly from the sales tax revenue the city gets from Home Depot, meaning the estimated revenue will be closer to between $492,000 and $592,000. 

Because of this deal, Home Depot will exercise a lease option to keep the store in Darien for at least 10 more years. 

Darien alderman also agreed to pay Walmart $4 million in financial incentives in April 2012 to keep the big box store in town and help fund its expansion project. 

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