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Flossmoor board likely to approve tax exemption for medical firm

The Flossmoor Village Board endorsed an extended tax break for a local business at its May 18 meeting. No board members objected to the proposal of a renewed Class 8 tax incentive for Alliance Real Estate, 19801 Governors Highway. The location is home to medical and professional services such as Premier Orthopaedic and Hand Center and Athletico Physical Therapy. 

The Flossmoor Village Board endorsed an extended tax break for a local business at its May 18 meeting. 

No board members objected to the proposal of a renewed Class 8 tax incentive for Alliance Real Estate, 19801 Governors Highway. The location is home to medical and professional services such as Premier Orthopaedic and Hand Center and Athletico Physical Therapy. 

The board is expected to formally vote on the tax break at the June 1 meeting. 

Board members held the meeting remotely as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Offered by Cook County, Class 8 tax incentives reduce a property’s assessment level for 12 years. That allows the business to be assessed at a lower rate, which means a smaller property tax burden during the exemption period.

The village must approve the exemption before it will be allowed by the county. In previous years, Flossmoor has been reluctant to renew Class 8 incentives, citing that such renewals result in increased property taxes for residents. 

However, Mayor Paul Braun said Monday that he in is in favor of the renewal, noting how the village endorsed a similar proposal for Ingalls Family Care Center in 2018 due to the services it provides. 

“I support this application given the circumstances of where we are today with the pandemic and the economic distress that we are all facing,” Braun said. “There’s a lot of uncertainty that we’re all facing here with property tax assessments going forward.”

Without the tax break, the property’s taxes would increase by 150 percent and “make the future of the facility questionable,” according to Alliance Real Estate’s proposal. 

“The medical field has experienced significant consolidation as insurance companies and  hospitals have been forced to reexamine profitability in the industry,” the firm said in its petition to the board. “Within the past several years, solo practitioners and medical  practices have been acquired and absorbed by larger medical practices and/or hospitals.

“The result is that these individual and/or stand‐alone practices and facilities have been absorbed wherein the real estate has become vacant while  practices are consolidating to centralized locations. The result is that some medical services are no longer offered on a daily basis in communities that are in dire need of medical care.” 

Alliance Real Estate has pledged to reimburse the village for its share of municipal property tax revenue starting with payments from 2019. 

Under the proposal, the firm’s initial assessment level will be set at 10 percent of market value and is to be increased gradually to 25 percent over the life of the extension.

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