South Barrington looking at creating special taxing district to improve old Allstate headquarters site

As a redevelopment plan for Allstate’s former headquarters in South Barrington comes together, village officials are taking steps to create a special taxing district that would help fund improvements there.

The proposed tax increment financing district would raise cash for new infrastructure and other upgrades at the site, which is near the southeast corner of Higgins and Bartlett roads. It also would help bankroll improvements at the neighboring South Barrington Office Center, which is just west of where Higgins and the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway cross, officials said.

While Allstate’s former buildings were razed after the company consolidated operations in Northbrook more than a decade ago, the office center has tenants.

In a tax increment financing district, revenue generated by a property's increasing value or new development is diverted to a fund that pays for land purchases, infrastructure improvements and other projects within the same zone for up to 23 years.

In this case, the revenue would help “fill the potholes of a property that needs extensive work, utilities (and) internal roads,” said the village’s attorney, James Vasselli.

The roughly 100-acre, mostly triangular district would be bordered by Higgins Road, Bartlett Road and the tollway. To be dubbed the Higgins Corridor Redevelopment Project Area, it would only include the former Allstate site and the office park, Vasselli said.

The TIF district would be the village’s first, he added.

The village board Monday scheduled a meeting to discuss the proposal with representatives of other area agencies — including Barrington Area Unit School District 220, Harper College and the Barrington Area Library. It’ll begin at 7 p.m. Aug. 24 at village hall, 30 Barrington Road.

The board also scheduled a Sept. 17 public hearing.

The board could vote to create the taxing district in October, Vasselli said.

While the office park is in South Barrington, the Allstate property is considered part of unincorporated Cook County. The land had been part of the village until it was disconnected by a court order, at Allstate’s urging, last year ahead of a redevelopment plan that later fizzled.

Now, however, a Minnesota company called Opus wants the village board to annex the land as part of its plan to purchase the site and construct three light-industrial buildings there.

South Barrington officials back the redevelopment plan but haven’t yet voted on annexation. That could happen in October, too, Vasselli said.

rlissau@dailyherald.com