The DeKalb City Council indicated Monday night that it will work with a Fortune 500 company to create financial incentives that may convince the company to build a 1.5 million-square-foot warehouse in DeKalb.

The council voted to work through details to offer about $2.8 million in incentives from the city to the potential development at Park 88, code-named Temecula.

Another $2.3 million in tax breaks is being offered by other taxing bodies in the county.

The rough draft of the city’s incentive package given to the council includes five years of property-tax breaks, totalling $1.5 million over five years, and the city would pick up the costs of relocating power lines currently on the property.

City Manager Mark Biernacki said Temecula would bring at least 500 jobs to the community, with potential to provide 1,000 jobs over time.

Biernacki said a study conducted by the Center for Governmental Studies at NIU showed that for every 100 jobs created at the $100 million development in Park 88, 194 jobs would be created in the county.

“This has potential to be great,” 4th Ward Alderman Mike Knowlton said. “This could stem the tide of industrial exodus we’ve seen in the past few years.”

The city courted another Fortune 500, reported to be the Lowe’s home improvement chain, for months only to learn that they would not build a millwork factory in DeKalb, but in Janesville, Wis.

Lowe’s is still in the process of selecting a site for its 1.3 million-square-foot warehouse.

Roger Hopkins, executive director of the DeKalb County Economic Development Corporation, never confirmed that Lowe’s had expressed interest in DeKalb. Hopkins did say that “all Janesville has is the millwork.”

Should the Temecula warehouse be built in the industrial development near Interstate 88, the incentives would be recouped by the city in the form of utility taxes and future property taxes, estimated at $978,000 per year once the incentives expire, according to a city memo.

The memo indicates 90 percent of employees would be paid more than $12 per hour and would have health insurance benefits.

Salaried executive positions are expected to constitute 10 percent of employees.

The DeKalb Daily Chronicle, citing an unnamed source, reported that the company seeking the Temecula development is Target, the retailer with headquarters in Minneapolis.

A spokeswoman for Target said they are looking at their options in northern Illinois, and that any project is in preliminary development.