PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — Maui Jim in Peoria is expanding across the street to the tune of $80 million. The sunglasses company was recently acquired by Italian luxury brand Kering Eyewear.
The $80 million expansion includes $50 million for a 150,000-square-foot building containing labs, manufacturing, distribution, logistics and office space. About $20 million will go towards fixtures, and the remaining $10 million will go towards soft costs such as site improvements, land acquisitions, and roadway work on Walton Lane.
“Peoria’s very proud of Maui Jim to see they are expanding their footprint makes us even more proud,” said Peoria City Manager Patrick Urich.
Urich said Kering acquired 80 acres off Allen Road as part of a TIF agreement encouraging industrial development in the area. That means the base property tax rate will remain the same for the next 20 years.
“Being a company that was created here and really took off, I think that we’re very proud to see that we have the hundreds of Maui Jim employees here in Peoria that are working, and we’re very excited that Kering Eyewear is going to have a footprint here as well, and that hopefully we’ll see that number continues to grow,” said Urich.
As part of the TIF agreement, the city will reimburse Kering 85 percent of property taxes related to improvements, estimated at about $10 million. The remaining 15 percent of those reimbursements will go to Dunlap School District.
“As development occurs, any additional property tax increment on the new value improvements made on the property – so in this instance, the new building – all that additional property tax will go into TIF,” explained Urich.
Construction is expected to take about two years.
