United Airlines To Return $5.6 Million In Tax Incentives To City

By Chuck Sudo in News on Nov 12, 2012 8:00PM

United Airlines flight 929 from London arrives at O'Hare International Airport to a water cannon salute. (Image via United Airlines Twitter page.)

How well has moving to Sears Tower worked out for United Airlines? So well they're giving back $5.6 million in tax incentives to the city. United is also forgoing an additional $9.7 million in additional potential city grant funds that it will no longer be eligible to receive because it is leaving its previous headquarters at 77 W. Wacker Dr.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel praised the move in a press release as "an incredible act of corporate citizenship that speaks to the unique role Chicago’s business community plays in the future of the city." But that $5.6 million is only a fraction of what they already spent to call 77 W. Wacker home. United previously received $31 million in incentives to move to their Wacker Drive headquarters..

Nor does it include $35.9 million in TIF money they received in 2009 to move employees from Elk Grove Village to Sears Tower. In total, corporations received over $100 million in tax incentives between 2000 and 2010 to either move their headquarters to or keep them in Chicago. In total, over half of $1.2 billion in TIFs went to private sector entities during that time frame.

Handing back $5.6 million is the least United can do.