Cook OKs Navistar RZFBs

The Cook County Board of Commissioners’ earlier this month gave their preliminary approval to a plan to use $90 million in federal recovery zone facility bonds to help support Navistar International Corp.’s expansion plans.

Proceeds would go to renovate the truck manufacturing company’s testing and validation facility in Melrose Park.

The Illinois Finance Authority is piecing together program allocations from various government entities. The cities of Naperville, Rockford, Elgin and Joliet, along with Douglas, DuPage, Henry, Kankakee and DeKalb counties, are also providing portions of their allocation.

The IFA board in September approved a $145 million bond issue using RZFBs for Navistar’s new DuPage County corporate headquarters. Proceeds would finance the purchase, renovation, equipping, and additions to nine building on an 87-acre site in the village of Lisle that was originally developed as the Lucent Technologies Research Center. Some proceeds will fund improvements to the company’s distribution facilities in Joliet.

The Lisle site will serve as the company’s new corporate headquarters and house its research and development facilities. Navistar — founded in 1902 as International Harvester Co. — is one of the largest truck manufacturers in the world. The company operates 22 manufacturing and assembly facilities in North America and employs 15,000 worldwide. It is currently headquartered in Warrenville, about three miles from the new site.

The RZFB program allows some for-profit companies to sell tax-exempt bonds for qualified projects without draining a state’s portion of the private-activity volume cap. Illinois received $1 billion for use by local governments. Chicago received its own allocation of $200 million and Cook County received $197 million.

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Transportation industry
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