3000–3135 Madison St, Bellwood: a 98,905 SF brick manufacturing/warehouse campus on ±3.44 acres, priced right for the national online furniture retailer Jason represented — until a property-tax bill of roughly $247,000 a year broke the underwriting. Instead of walking away, Jason brought in a Cook County Class 6B specialist. The incentive came through in about 45 days, cut the tax burden to roughly $112,000 a year, and the deal closed at $2,975,000 — about $30 per square foot.
The client — a national online furniture retailer — needed serious warehouse square footage without paying a serious price per foot. Jason found it: a nearly 100,000 SF brick manufacturing/warehouse campus in Bellwood at a genuinely attractive price. Then the operating numbers landed. Cook County property taxes on the building ran roughly $247,000 a year — enough to erase the pricing advantage and kill the purchase on paper.
This is how most industrial deals actually die: not because the buyer stops wanting the building, but because one line item in the underwriting refuses to move.
Instead of grinding the seller on price or walking away, Jason went after the tax bill itself. Cook County’s Class 6B incentive assesses qualifying industrial property at 10% of market value for 10 years instead of the standard 25% — a structural reduction, not an appeal.
Jason located and brought in a Class 6B specialist attorney with deep experience in the classification, and helped the buyer work through the qualifying requirements with the village. The incentive came through in roughly 45 days — fast enough to keep the deal alive and the seller at the table.
With taxes cut from about $247,000 to about $112,000 per year, the underwriting worked. The buyer closed on the 98,905 SF campus in September 2023 for $2,975,000 — roughly $30 per square foot — and got the low-cost-per-foot warehouse the whole search had been about, with a tax structure that protects the economics for a decade.
Class 6B assesses qualifying industrial property at 10% of market value for 10 years instead of the standard 25%. Tax, legal, and incentive matters should always be reviewed with qualified counsel.
“A six-figure tax bill killed the deal on paper — a 45-day Class 6B reduction brought it back to life.”
Price is only one lever in a commercial deal. When the obstacle is an operating cost — taxes, utilities, code compliance — the broker’s job is to know which levers exist, who actually pulls them, and how fast they move. That knowledge is the difference between a dead deal and a closed one.
Taxes, financing, zoning, environmental — most “dead” deals have one fixable obstacle. Tell Jason what you’re trying to buy or sell and he’ll tell you, confidentially, whether there’s a lever worth pulling.
Own an industrial building in Cook or Lake County? Start at For Owners or call.