Glenview board OKs $2.5M in assistance for downtown development
The Glenview board of trustees provided financial aid to The Drake Group for its controversial downtown development.
By a 4-1 vote on Tuesday trustees authorized an economic assistance agreement for the mixed-use project at 1850 Glenview Road.
The agreement will provide $2.5 million from the village's Permanent Fund. The Glenview developer proposes to build a 5-story, mixed-use building of 65 apartments with 5,200 square feet of first-floor retail space at the former site of Bess Hardware, vacant since 2010.
Stated by the village as a $33.8 million project, the $2.5 million would kick in after Drake has used $12.5 million in equity investment "and/or" has finished 32.5% of the construction.
Glenview's funds would only be used toward construction costs.
The agreement specified that if The Drake Group sold the development within 5 years for more than $42.5 million it would pay the village 17% of the sale price over $42.5 million, up to $350,000.
On June 27, the board had approved a sixth extension for the closing on the property, whose initial purchase and sale agreement between Glenview and Drake came in 2018.
The board approved the development in March 2020. According to the village, since then financing and construction costs to Drake have risen 37% as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and a resolved 2020 lawsuit on the property brought against the village.
The sixth amendment set the closing date on or before Sept. 29. Drake must still submit drawings for review and final approval, followed by permitting, with construction anticipated to start in the spring of 2024.
Opponents of the development, who one public speaker Tuesday stated were in the "hundreds and hundreds and hundreds," were frustrated that the village would provide more money to a developer they felt already had been appeased.
Glenview had purchased the site for $2.225 million in 2017, but the closing price on the 2018 purchase and sale agreement stands at $1.81 million.
Earlier at Tuesday's meeting, Trustee Gina DeBoni noted the "excitement in the air" over a Ballyhoo Hospitality restaurant, Jackman & Co., coming to 1749 Glenview Road. This also received village financial assistance to bridge an "economic gap" between investment and construction cost.
"There's a difference between coming to a restaurant and coming for an apartment," said Trustee Mary Cooper, the lone dissenter on the Drake economic assistance agreement.
"There's a lot of heart for people having this property developed, but we're being asked to cap the amount, that if it's sold for double the amount or significantly more we're being asked to cap for $350,000," she said.
"I believe that's not financially responsible for us as a board to cap it at $350,000. I believe if we're going to invest $2.5 million that we should also get some upside beyond that," Cooper said.
Others at the meeting, public speakers and board members alike, specified the need for dense development to drive downtown activity. Trustee Tim Doron stressed developing a site vacant 13 years.
Village President Mike Jenny defended the use on a "site-specific basis" of the village's Permanent Fund, bolstered by gains from The Glen tax increment financing district.
"To be clear," Trustee Adam Sidoti said, "I don't like funding to this level, I don't like the cap. but I also know that our end goal is development.
"Every single person in this room, whether you're in favor of this or not, is in favor of a revitalized downtown, and that's what we are voting for tonight."