Hoffman Estates restaurant campus at Higgins and Barrington to receive funding for improvements
The end of Hoffman Estates' first tax-increment financing district at the southeast corner of Higgins and Barrington roads after 35 years is arriving with the allocation of $600,000 for further improvements to its five-lot restaurant campus.
The tax incentive was originally approved in 1986 for an envisioned auto mall there, but it instead led to the creation of the restaurant campus at the corner and The Stonegate Banquet & Conference Centre east of it.
Though a TIF district normally lasts for 23 years before expiring, village officials granted a final 12-year extension at the request of The Stonegate owners at the time, Hoffman Estates Economic Development Director Kevin Kramer said.
The money collected from increases in property taxes for businesses within a TIF district is earmarked for public improvements, rather than local governments, that enable and accompany private development.
The $600,000 is being allocated to Schaumburg-based Ala Carte Entertainment, which owns four of the five restaurant lots and also acts as manager of the campus' Higgins & Barrington Commercial District Association.
The money will continue to be held by the village and given to Ala Carte only to reimburse the costs of qualifying projects, Kramer said.
One of the conditions is the resurfacing of the campus' internal roadway by next Nov. 1. That cost has been estimated at about $150,000, but in the breakdown of the total allocation it's listed at $200,000.
"It needs to get done, too," Kramers said. "It's deteriorating."
He added that savings realized in one area of the improvements can allow for more to be spent on another.
The Steak 'n Shake is the only building on the campus not owned by Ala Carte. A Moretti's and Moretti's Unique Events are operational, while a former TGI Fridays and Romano's Macaroni Grill remain vacant and await redevelopment.
Kramer said that while TIF funding can be used even to demolish a vacant building, it cannot be spent on above-ground construction.
The allocation foresees $170,000 for the vacant Macaroni Grill site, $136,000 for the vacant TGI Fridays and $94,000 for a couple of monument signs for all the businesses on the campus.
No specific plans have yet been presented for the TGI Fridays site, but in September 2020, Ala Carte received some positive feedback from village trustees at a courtesy review of a plan for the Macaroni Grill site.
Under that plan, there would be an Amoco gas station, a Circle K convenience store, an Ala Carte Entertainment restaurant named Buddy's Beef and a Gloria Jean's coffee shop. But no further action has been sought in 15 months.