335-unit luxury apartment complex coming to Hoffman Estates

Hoffman Estates village board members have approved a two-building, 335-unit luxury apartment complex for the former Menards site along Higgins Road.

Trustee Gary Stanton cast the lone dissenting vote against a special-use permit allowing the Grand Reserve of Hoffman Estates apartments at the east end of the Barrington Square Town Center. He criticized the plan to construct the first building closer to Higgins Road rather starting on the empty Menards lot.

Representatives of the developer — Synergy Construction and Development Co. doing business as Grand Reserve HE LLC — said the phasing is based on a desire to draw the attention of passing motorists. The second building will follow soon after the 18-month construction of the first, they said.

Stanton joined his colleagues in approving the project’s eligibility for $8 million in public funding from the tax increment financing (TIF) district on the site, if both buildings are be completed.

The first building would include 194 units, from studios up to two bedrooms, on five floors, with 282 parking spaces, 86 of which are inside a garage. The second building would bring another 141 similar units on four floors, with 206 parking spaces, 11 of which would be inside.

The completed complex will feature 20,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor amenity space including a gym, pool, pickleball courts, shared offices, media rooms, golf simulators, storage lockers, dog wash stations and DIY rooms.

Stanton expressed concern about the apartments taking parking from Barrington Square tenants, but Village Manager Eric Palm said he’d heard positive feedback from those businesses.

“The ones I have spoken to have expressed to me anecdotally that they are anxious to see this project come to fruition,” Palm said. “They want to see the extra foot traffic from the project. They see that as an overall benefit to their businesses.”

While Mayor Bill McLeod has been adamantly opposed to the use of TIF districts for residential projects, he agreed with an assessment made during a committee meeting last week that rental apartments are much more like commercial property in terms of their taxing model. This complex is also projected to house few school-age children.

Hoffman Estates Economic Development Director Kevin Kramer said that school districts and other taxing bodies affected by the TIF district can get paid based on the number of children there if they report to the village how many that is each year.

A TIF district works by freezing the level of taxes local governments receive at the level of the first year — which in this case was 2012, after the demolition of the Menards building. Until 2035, additional tax revenues generated as the property is improved go to a municipally held fund for public improvements and other eligible costs.

Because TIF district’s life is already half over, Palm said using its funds to support the apartment project is a short-term investment for a long-term gain to the village’s tax base — helping ease the burden of existing taxpayers.

Trustee Patrick Kinnane endorsed that sentiment at last week’s committee meeting.

“As long as I can remember, that’s been a vacant piece of property,” he said. “It’s been empty ever since Menards packed up and left. Like Eric said, it’s time that we started moving forward. It’s a prime piece of real estate. It would be great to have the apartment units there because of the shopping area and other things there.”

Construction of the first building is planned to begin in the spring. The entire complex is expected complete by 2030.