Wheaton council debates Hubble’s future

The potential sale of Wheaton Warrenville District 200’s Hubble Middle School site in Wheaton at one point had officials dreaming big, with visions of a gateway “gem” to the city’s downtown area at the corner of Naperville and Roosevelt roads. However, as school officials consider a park district proposal to buy the site, some city officials now say they just hope the school district delays a decision until it is certain there is no market for it.

“The frustration we have is that we have these concepts and ideas of what we’d like to see, but nobody coming forward with any formal proposals,” Councilman Phil Suess said during a planning session Monday.

He said he wants the school district to put the site up for auction and see what kind of interest it draws.

The comments come less than one week after Wheaton Park District officials said they would offer the school district “fair market value” for the 22-acre site, which includes ball fields and a 250,000-square-foot building that housed the school until August of 2009. The park district has been using the fields and about 50,000 square feet of the building for athletic programs for about a year.

A December letter from the school district to city officials indicated that the district intended to sell the property to a private developer, thus placing the property on the city’s tax rolls.

“We should send a letter back acknowledging receipt of their letter and encouraging them to put a ‘For Sale’ sign on it (the site),” Suess said.

But Councilman John Prendiville, who is challenging Wheaton Mayor Mike Gresk in the April election, said that would nullify the work of a steering committee that recommended either a mixed-use or recreational site to serve as an entrance to Wheaton’s downtown area. Prendiville said he supports the recreation plan.

“If the ‘For Sale’ sign goes out there, that throws out the work of the steering committee,” he said. “We came up with what we wanted out there. We thought we’d meet our goal of having a gem of a property, a gateway to our downtown. This throws the process on its ear.”

Gresk said last week he hoped the school district sold to a private developer. City Manager Don Rose told councilmen the site continues to draw interest from at least two developers representing the same big-name grocer.

An appraisal of the site is underway, Rose said. In 2007, it was appraised at nearly $22 million. However, that study was far above previous studies that appraised the site somewhere between $4.8 million and $10 million.

Rose said he hoped the property would make it to the city’s tax rolls, but he was not optimistic.

“In the near term, it’s going to be difficult,” he said. “The development market is just terrible. Nobody is doing much of anything right now.”