FedEx coming to Bridgeview

Company agrees to deal for 79th and Harlem

By Steve Metsch

FedEx and Bridgeview have hammered out a deal that will provide the company with needed space along busy Harlem Avenue and get the village a guaranteed income stream.

FedEx will acquire 80 acres at the northeast corner of the intersection of 79^th Street and Harlem Avenue.

Doing so will result in several businesses – including Northwestern College – having to seek new locations, village officials said.

Mark Jamil, an attorney for the village, said the deal will provide the village with $450,000 in revenue through 2035.

Mayor Steve Landek said the revenue will be $400,000 annually after that until 2040.

That total matches the property taxes that won’t be paid by the existing businesses at the location, officials said.

Bridgeview Village Trustee James Cecott joined his fellow board members approving the deal with FedEx. Photo by Steve Metsch

Jamil updated the village board about the deal with FedEx when trustees held their meeting on Feb. 5.

The property was the subject of a Dec. 23 Request for Proposal issued by the village, Jamil said.

Proposals were due Jan. 13. One was received from FedEx Ground, which proposed a purchase price of $1.8 million for the site that contains some current commercial units.

“The offer of $1.8 (million) is certainly above the market rate we identified in the village’s appraisal,” Jamil said.

FedEx “wants to buy the business college and all the retail,” Landek said.

“They’re generating about $400,000 a year (in taxes) so if they took it down, they have to replace the sales tax … It would be used for truck parking, landscaped, FedEx always does a nice job. So, it’s really no loss in retail taxes for us,” Landek said.

Officials said that current tenants will likely have to pay rent to FedEx until demolition takes place.

“It’s a great project. It secures us a source of revenue,” Landek added. “We don’t lose anything.”

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Steve Metsch

Steve Metsch is an award winning veteran reporter who previously worked for the Daily Southtown Newspapers, Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times. Metsch is a writer and editor at the Southwest News Newspaper group based in suburban Chicago, and a freelance writer a health magazine, the Suburban Life, the Naperville Sun, and other organizations.
Email Steve Metsch at [email protected]