Hubble's cost biggest snag for Wheaton

On the surface, it would seem that the Wheaton Park District proposal to use the shuttered Hubble Middle School for recreation and a new grocery store would be the best of all worlds.

It would return a portion of the property to the tax rolls, which many in town have encouraged, and it would preserve many of the park programs the district says it would have to discontinue if its use of Hubble is lost.

However, a disagreement with Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200 on how much the 22-acre site is worth could end up being a deal breaker. Park officials, while acknowledging they could come up with $6 million for such a project, say the property — which has drawn little public interest from developers in two separate auctions — is not worth even the $5 million minimum bid placed on the site. School officials say that price, half the amount sought in the first auction, was appropriate.

“We all feel strongly that it is worth $5 million,” said school board President Rosemary Swanson. “But we're not going to reject any offer out-of-hand. We'll give every offer a fair look.”

She said the school board was legally bound to that $5 million sale price for private developers after the price was set for the auction. However, as government entities, the school and park boards still could negotiate a lower price through an intergovernmental agreement.

But until the park district makes a formal offer, school officials said it would be premature to say whether that would be pursued.

On Monday, park officials announced a deal to bring a Mariano's Fresh Market grocery store to the site. To accommodate the 70,500-square-foot store, a portion of the school would be demolished. The park district would preserve three gymnasiums in the building's north end. The plan calls for preservation of several ball fields, which sit on 13 acres of unbuildable flood plain. The park district also would install a “Gateway Gardens,” open space on the northeast corner of Main Street and Roosevelt Road, an intersection often viewed as the gateway to downtown Wheaton.

Park officials would not say Tuesday how much they were offering the school, but on Monday board President Ray Morrill said they have capped all expenses for the site, including demolition, asbestos removal or containment and site acquisition, to $6 million.

During the past several months, the park district has spoken with developers, and Swanson said the school district had encouraged developers to contact the park district. For both Monday's auction and a 60-day sealed-bid auction that ended in mid-April, the school district included a clause that encouraged bidders to make a “good-faith effort” to work with the park district, which has said in the past that the site provides more than 90,000 user hours.

The school district has said for months that the goal of the sale is to get the old Hubble site back on the tax rolls.

Morrill said Tuesday that the plan will do that, at least for the southeast corner.

“We are guaranteeing we will work with a developer to put (that portion) back on the tax rolls,” Morrill said. “Now it's time to put any differences aside, and let's work this out for the betterment of everybody. ... Let's make this happen.”