Olive Garden will receive tax money from the city of Sycamore after its new restaurant is built across from Northwestern Medicine Kishwaukee Hospital, if all goes to plan.

The Sycamore City Council unanimously approved an economic incentive package Monday night that will allow the restaurant to receive some of the money the city will collect from patrons at the eatery through the city’s 2% restaurant food tax.

City Manager Michael Hall said the city has not taken similar action for restaurants in the past, but has for a large grocer.

“We did do something like this for sales tax with Meijer,” Hall said. “We’ve heard from the community, or at least I’ve seen from the community, they’re interested in an Olive Garden. So we thought we’d try something new with an incentive tool.”

In a letter to Sycamore Alderpersons ahead of the Monday night Sycamore City Council meeting, Hall wrote that the City would not provide any upfront financial assistance to the national restaurant chain. Instead, the city would pay the portion of the tax dollars generated by the restaurant back to the business.

Over a maximum of 10 years, the Olive Garden will receive incentive payments from a portion of the city’s restaurant, bar, and package liquor tax revenues generated by the restaurant, city documents show.

For the first three years of taxable operation, the restaurant will receive 75% from that pool of tax revenue back from the city, 50% from four to seven years and 25% after eight years.

The business incentive would be capped at $400,000, regardless of when that amount is reached over the 10-year period of the agreement, documents show.

Hall said on Monday that Andy Stein, representing Olive Garden, approached the city about a year prior about opening a new Italian eatery in Sycamore. He said the city’s community development, engineering, and administrative teams worked to answer questions about development and zoning brought by Stein and Olive Garden.

“Through the process, they found a piece of property,” Hall said. “That took a long time, negotiations with that, and they did purchase it, and they are moving forward with that. My understanding is they have a deal.”