Hours after the city announced its continued fight for annexation, Cook Group successfully safeguarded nine of its properties from the city’s expansion efforts for the next 15 years.
The Bloomington City Council approved Wednesday night an agreement barring the annexation of nine Cook properties that currently sit in the county. In exchange, Cook must pay a minimum of $100,000 annually, for a total of at least $1.5 million over the life of the agreement. Should Cook not invest $100 million and create 500 full-time jobs, that fee will grow.
Cook’s announcement last month about its plans to purchase former GE Appliances plant came with a promise to bolster the region with about 500 jobs over the next 10 years.
“I’m very excited that Cook is committed to staying here and committed to helping the city this way,” city council member Dorothy Granger said. “I think it’s a win-win situation for the community and everyone involved.”
The life sciences company will pay its first installment of $100,000 in 2018, and will continue to pay that amount so long as it creates a minimum of 50 jobs and makes $10 million in investments every year from the end of 2022 until 2031.
Starting in 2023, the city will determine whether Cook meets its set goals on a year-to-year basis. Should Cook not satisfy the outlined goals, the annual payment will increase to $250,000.
Pete Yonkman, president of Cook Group and Cook Medical, previously said he believed annexation would have provided no added benefit for the company’s properties in the county. According to Yonkman, Cook would have paid an additional $500,000 in taxes annually had it not worked out an agreement with the city to avoid annexation.