Schaumburg OKs plans to renovate historic Turret House
Schaumburg trustees have approved a $749,000 renovation of the historic Turret House recently acquired through a land swap with the expanding Lou Malnati's restaurant next door.
After the extensive interior and exterior restoration is finished next winter, the village intends to move its Family Counseling Center there from a carriage house on the grounds of the Schaumburg Barn on Civic Drive.
Village Manager Ken Fritz recommends then demolishing the carriage house, but said he's open to arguments about why it should stay.
The project is being funded by the village's 20-year-old Tax Increment Finance (TIF) district, set to expire in 2013. The district covers the Olde Schaumburg Centre area around the intersection of Schaumburg and Roselle roads.
TIF districts raise funds for public improvements by freezing the level of property taxes all taxing bodies can collect at the level of a district's first year. As property values and taxes rise in later years, the additional money collected is saved specifically for public improvements within the district.
The village will pay $39,000 to Postl-Yore and Associates, Inc. of Rolling Meadows for architectural oversight and $710,000 to Lamp, Inc. of Elgin for the actual physical work, Fritz said.
The village obtained the Turret House from Lou Malnati's in March in exchange for the vacant furniture store adjacent to the restaurant along Roselle Road. The house sits just east of Lou Malnati's, near the corner of Schaumburg and Roselle roads.
The restaurant has torn down the furniture store as part of an expansion that won't significantly add capacity, but will give the restaurant a more efficient, customer-friendly layout, said Pat Keuth, its director of construction.
The restaurant intends to complete its improvements before the holidays, and will never close completely during the phased project.
The two building projects are occurring in conjunction with a reconfiguration of the village-owned parking lot that lies behind them.