Schaumburg aiming to revitalize aging 573-acre industrial park
Schaumburg officials hope a tax increment financing (TIF) district can provide the public resources needed to attract new investment in the village’s nearly 60-year-old, 573-acre Centex industrial park.
The park lies just north of Schaumburg Regional Airport and is bisected by the Elgin-O'Hare Tollway. The area is bordered by Wise Road to the north, Irving Park Road to the south, Rodenburg Road to the west and Mitchell Boulevard to the east.
Neighboring Elk Grove Village’s 6-square-mile industrial park — the largest in the nation — wouldn’t be as successful without the kind of public-private partnership Schaumburg officials have in mind for Centex, Elk Grove Mayor Craig Johnson said.
Through a combination of location, modern infrastructure and a supportive local government, demand for some areas of the park has driven land prices there to $2 million an acre, Johnson added.
“We have the most successful industrial park for one reason — because we are willing to work with the business sector,” he said. “Businesses can go anywhere. We’re making it so businesses can’t afford to say no to Elk Grove Village.”
Schaumburg Economic Development Director Matt Frank said the village’s goal is not to change the Centex industrial park’s identity, but to keep it as up to date for current and future businesses as other sites in the region.
“If we want to keep pace with all the other modern industrial parks, we’ve got to do something here,” he said.
Johnson believes Schaumburg’s efforts to revitalize Centex will make the whole region stronger.
While Elk Grove’s industrial park includes the additional electricity capacity for such uses as data centers, Schaumburg is aiming to simply create a better environment for the type of manufacturing businesses that use the Centex industrial park today. But even those businesses have different needs than they did decades ago, Johnson said, such as higher ceilings and larger loading docks.
“They want to maximize their storage space because the cost of land is going up,” Johnson said.
Johnson also noted that TIF funding allowed his village to acquire properties within its industrial park, package them into larger parcels and then sell them to businesses in need of more space.
Frank said that is a potential use of TIF funding in Schaumburg, but not a priority of the district the village is seeking to create.
Of greater importance are elimination of potential flooding within Centex and improvement of its utilities, infrastructure and parking capacity, Frank said.
A TIF district works by freezing local governments' share of property taxes generated within its boundaries. As property values in the district rise, the additional taxes go to a municipal fund to pay for public improvements and other eligible expenses. A TIF district expires after 23 years, unless the cost of its improvements can be paid off earlier.
Six representatives among the 16 affected taxing bodies attended a meeting this week to hear about the proposal and voted to recommend creation of the TIF district.
Consultants from S.B. Friedman Development Advisors in Chicago reported the area is eligible for a TIF district on the basis of deterioration, inadequate utilities, the presence of structures below minimum code, and lack of community planning.
A public hearing on the proposed TIF district will be held during the Schaumburg village board meeting May 14, ahead of a vote on its formal approval May 28.
Besides the village itself, the other local governments affected by the TIF district would be Cook and DuPage counties; Bloomingdale and Schaumburg townships; College of DuPage and Harper College; school districts 12, 20, 54, 108 and 211; the Roselle and Schaumburg park districts; and the Roselle and Schaumburg Township library districts.