Hubble redevelopment now becomes a test for the city
There's no longer a question about the future of Hubble Middle School. What remains is the task of selling the school's past.
Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200 will look to court developers for the school's current 22-acre site at Main Street and Roosevelt Road in Wheaton. Meanwhile, developers will jockey with the city to get the most profit out of an investment in the land.
That poses two upcoming tests.
The school board and current staff haven't handled the sale of a piece of district property this size before.
The most recent appraisal on the site valued it at nearly $22 million.
"Whether or not something like that can actually be realized in the sale of the land, only the reality will tell," said District 200 spokesman Robert Rammer. "It's a prime opportunity for someone, but we'll see."
Realizing profit will depend on the actual sale value of the land.
While the most recent appraisal was for $22 million, estimates the district received for the site in 2001 and 2002 were much lower. One appraisal valued the land at $4.8 million. The other appraised it at about $10 million. The $10 million appraisal didn't factor in the existing school building as a negative factor. The price to abate the asbestos in the building and then raze it would cost a developer millions of dollars alone.
School district staff haven't set a timetable for when they'll be ready to take offers on the site. The referendum results don't become official until after 21 days of canvassing. Then there's another 30 days on top of that when the results may be contested.
Either way, the property won't be available for redevelopment until August 2009. That's when the new Hubble should be complete.
Redevelopment of the Hubble site will be the first major test of the city's newly-adopted guidelines for tax increment financing districts.
The guidelines denote the factors the city council wants to see before providing tax-backed financing of a project.
The guidelines say TIF assistance will only be available to projects that wouldn't occur without the city's help. Financing won't be provided just to beef up a developer's profit margin. Also, city financing won't exceed 10 percent of the property value.
The city's policy is not a law. The council may choose to apply or ignore the guidelines as it sees fit.
Wheaton Mayor Mike Gresk said he's sure developers will come knocking on the city's doors with their hands out.
"That's just pro forma at this point," Gresk said. "But I don't have any burning desire to put a new TIF district there."
Gresk said he's also not viewing the Hubble property as an answer to the city's budget problems this year.
"With the necessary negotiations, the entire teardown of the school, the asbestos in there that needs remediation … realistically, I can only guess we're three to five years away," he said. "It'll be awhile before we see money in the drawer from that development."