The Edward Don Company, which will leave North Riverside next year after receiving millions of dollars in tax incentives from the village of Woodridge, is in line to receive millions more in tax credits courtesy of the state.

On Monday, the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity announced it will give Edward Don an Economic Development for a Growing Economy tax credit worth $4.5 million over 10 years.

The DCEO in a press release claimed the state’s offer “will create and retain 400 Illinois jobs and strengthen the Northeast Illinois economy.”

“We are committed to showing businesses everything Illinois has to offer that will help their companies grow,” said Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, in the press release. “Companies like Edward Don are taking notice and are helping us meet our goal of putting more people to work and growing our economy.”

Edward Don has been an Illinois company since 1921. The restaurant supply and foodservice equipment distribution giant has called North Riverside home since 1970 and employs about 400 people in its headquarters facility there. The company employs another 600 people at satellite centers throughout the nation.

But since all of the company’s sales funnel through its headquarters facility, it is also North Riverside’s single biggest sales tax producer in a village of retail big hitters, such as Sears, J.C. Penney, Best Buy and two auto dealers. Losing Edward Don means the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales taxes for North Riverside each year.

The company is building a new 362,000-square-foot headquarters at the Union Pointe Business Park in Woodridge. According to the press release, the company had considered a location in Kenosha, Wis.

“Edward Don and Company is excited about this next stage in our growth and development as a company,” said Steve Don, the company’s president and CEO, in the press release. “We are pleased with all the effort that was put forth by the state, DuPage County, [Woodridge] Mayor [William] Murphy and the staff of Woodridge to make the site in Woodridge our next home.”

-Bob Uphues