
Which Chicago buildings pay the highest taxes? Commercialcafe.com has compiled a list of the top 100 taxpaying buildings in the nation, and the results indicate that Willis Tower has the highest rank locally — but none of the Chicago sites compete with several large (and extremely expensive) buildings in New York City.
28 | Willis Tower/ Former Sears Tower | Office | Chicago | IL | 1973 | $28,453,830 |
55 | 300 East Randolph | Office | Chicago | IL | 1997 | $19,074,574 |
74 | Water Tower Place | Retail | Chicago | IL | 1976 | $16,451,972 |
75 | Aon Center | Office | Chicago | IL | 1972 | $16,424,059 |
However, two Illinois industrial properties really are nailed. In fact, the Byron Nuclear Generating Station paid the highest tax of any building outside of Manhattan in 2016.
13 | Exelon – Byron Nuclear Generating Station | Industrial | Byron | IL | 1985 | $36,576,768 |
26 | ExxonMobil Joliet Refinery | Industrial | Channahon | IL | 1986 | $29,294,513 |
Commercialcafe.com adds these additional insights:
- The iconic Willis Tower is the state’s third most expensive asset in terms of tax value and the nation’s second top taxpaying office building; the owner, Blackstone paid a little more than $28 million in taxes alone in 2016, 152 per cent less than the GM Building in NYC;
- The top taxpaying building outside of NYC is Byron, IL’s Exelon Nuclear Generating Station which paid $36 million last year in taxes;
- The two buildings with the highest taxes in the state are the Exelon Nuclear Station in Byron and ExxonMobil’s Joliet Refinery;
- Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago, the seventh-tallest building in the world, includes 486 privately-owned condominiums which made it impossible to calculate the exact amount of property taxes the building generated;
- Office properties collect the highest taxes; of the 100 total properties in the round-up, 74 were office buildings, 10 were hotels, 7 retail, 4 residential, 3 mixed-use and 2 industrial; and
- Unexpectedly, several national landmark buildings were not present on the list; city or government-owned buildings as well as historic landmark buildings like: One World Trade Center, Woolworth Building and the Chrysler Building are tax exempt.
You can view the complete list here: