Will County Board to take up tax incentive request from Lion Electric

The future electric vehicle production facility is expected to bring about 1,400 jobs to Joliet

An example of the electric school buses to be produced at the Joliet Lion Electric plant on Friday, May 7, 2021, at 3835 Youngs Road in Joliet, Ill. Governor Pritzker announced at a press conference on Friday morning that Lion Electric will be building a factory to produce electric school buses in Joliet. This will be the company's first factory in the United States.

The Will County Board will take up a tax incentive request from Lion Electric Company for its future Joliet plant which is expected to employ 1,400 workers by 2026.

If approved at the board’s meeting Thursday, the incentive package would reduce the company’s property taxes by half for five years once it builds the facility. The Will County Executive Committee voted to recommend the package at its meeting last Thursday with no opposition.

Will County Board Speaker Mimi Cowan, D-Naperville, said industries like electric vehicle manufacturing are an integral part of the state’s push for more green energy jobs. She added that for such a deal on more manufacturing jobs to come to Will County is “stupendous.”

“This is a really big, big win for Will County,” she said.

Lion Electric is moving into a 906,000-square-foot building under construction at 3835 Youngs Rd. in the Clarius Business Park. The site is near the Joliet border with Channahon and is near a Whirlpool distribution facility in Joliet and two Amazon facilities in Channahon.

The estimated property taxes for the completed project will reach about $1 million per year, according to county documents. The county’s portion of the future property taxes from the facility will be about $63,000, so the abatement will be worth around $32,000 annually.

Joliet’s Economic Development Committee approved the same package earlier this month. Lion Electric intends to pursue the same deal with Troy School District and Minooka Community High School District.