Extend Central Road? Schaumburg annexes land near Medieval Times that could help fund project
Schaumburg trustees have annexed 5.9 acres owned by Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament to add to the area’s existing tax increment financing (TIF) district that could help fund an eastward extension of Central Road to connect the Sunstar Americas headquarters with the Veridian development near Topgolf.
Schaumburg Mayor Tom Dailly said while he’s open to the possibility of such a road extension being studied, he’s skeptical that soil conditions and other environmental factors in the undeveloped area between Sunstar and Topgolf would make it viable.
“I’m not convinced that we should be punching this road through,” he added.
Bob Burk, managing partner of UrbanStreet Group LLC that has been redeveloping the former Motorola Solutions corporate campus into the 225-acre, mixed-use Veridian project, said he recognizes potential benefits from an extension of Central Road.
“It was discussed years and years ago,” he said. “For us, we’d love to be connected in that way. It would help you coming from the west.”
Though helpful in providing an alternate to Algonquin Road, an extension of Central Road was never something the Veridian development was contingent on, he added.
The land annexed Tuesday night isn’t practically necessary to building an extension of the road, but will contribute value to the TIF district that could help fund such a project.
The “7”-shaped property wraps around the Medieval Times parking lot at 2001 N. Roselle Road from the south shoulder of Central Road to the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway, and includes the structures where the entertainment venue’s horses are housed.
The land joins the village and the North Schaumburg TIF district, established in 2014 to help fund public improvements related to redevelopment in an area running adjacent to Algonquin Road.
A TIF district works by freezing local governments’ share of property taxes at the level of its first year. As property is improved and increases in value, the increment in taxes goes to a municipally held fund to pay for such public projects as roads, utilities and drainage.
TIF districts typically expire after 23 years or earlier, if all public improvements already have been paid off.