Schaumburg restarts push for developing convention center area
Schaumburg trustees, eager to promote redevelopment of the area around the convention center, are expected to hire a consultant Tuesday to help create a new tax increment finance district there.
The new TIF district would replace one that ended last fall after less than three years, during which time sluggish property values hurt the district's effectiveness.
While covering the same general area as the last TIF district, the new one will be somewhat larger and focus more on the Algonquin Road corridor north of the convention center than the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway to the south, Village Manager Ken Fritz said.
The new TIF district will extend from the eastern edge of Schaumburg, at about Finn McCool's restaurant, to just west of the convention center. It will likely include Motorola's headquarters.
While there's been no suggestion of Motorola leaving the area, there are some warehouses and other buildings on the campus that may be due for upgrade or replacement during the 23-year life span of the TIF district, Fritz said.
“Motorola has told us they're committed to that site as their corporate headquarters,” he added.
A TIF district is intended to enable new development by providing funding for public improvements to go along with it. It works by freezing the property taxes generated by the redeveloped property to other government bodies like school and park districts, and funneling those additional taxes into the TIF itself.
A key aspect of a TIF district's effectiveness is that property values generally rise over time. And that wasn't happening during the recession-plagued years of the first TIF district's life span.
Village officials ended the district and repaid its funds to surrounding taxing bodies. Starting a new TIF district from scratch also allows the 23-year clock to start again.
Among the changes that may occur in 23 years are the relocation of the Cook County Highway Maintenance yard, new uses on the sites of several low-rise office buildings and the construction of a tollway interchange at Meacham Road, Fritz said.
The roughly six-month time frame to implement the TIF district and define its borders will begin Tuesday, when the village board is expected to hire Teska Associates Inc. for $48,500.
Though the original TIF district strongly envisioned construction of the STAR rail line along the tollway, the developments sought from the new district would work either with or without the STAR line, Fritz said.