With eye toward revenue sharing at Bears redevelopment, school districts to retain financial adviser

The three school districts whose boundaries cover the Bears’ property in Arlington Heights plan to retain a financial adviser to assist them in future talks related to the team’s prospective stadium redevelopment.

Chicago-based consultant Joe Pilewski would get a seat at the table during negotiations with the NFL club and village over revenue-sharing opportunities stemming from the stadium-anchored mixed-use district at the former 326-acre Arlington Park racetrack.

Palatine Township Elementary District 15, Northwest Suburban High School District 214 and Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 plan to split the cost of Pilewski’s $470 hourly rate.

District 15’s school board approved its part of the deal last week, and District 214’s board reviewed it pending a final vote April 23. District 211’s board will consider signing on Thursday.

The initial engagement is expected to range from 50 to 100 hours, but the financial adviser’s work is not expected to begin in earnest until a vote is taken in Springfield on Bears-backed megaproject legislation. Approval of the bill — which would give the team a property tax break at the sprawling site — would clear the way to an Arlington Heights stadium, but Bears brass have otherwise threatened to build their new complex in Northwest Indiana.

“If they build here, it’s really important for us to understand the project’s long-term financial implications. This is decades — decades and decades — that they’re going to be within our boundaries,” said District 15 Superintendent Laurie Heinz. “The clock is not really going to start ticking too much until we know whether or not they’re coming. It remains the billion-dollar question: Here, (or) is it going to be Hammond? Who knows. But we want to have this authorization should we need to engage this group.”

District 214 Superintendent Scott Rowe suggested that even if the bill doesn’t pass the General Assembly, “there will hopefully be some form of a conversation in Arlington Heights before the Bears just say, ‘See ya, Indiana here we come.’ So we want to be prepared for that so we can be productive partners at the table.”

Under terms of the engagement letter, Pilewski would identify potential sources of revenue from the project for the school districts, participate in negotiations over education funding, estimate costs associated with the project, and prepare specialized financial analyses including tax-exempt bond financing capacity and debt service projections.

The three school districts have similarly split the costs for lobbyists at Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies to monitor Bears legislation at the state Capitol over the last three years. The districts also share representation by Ares Dalianis, a noted property tax attorney for public school districts throughout the suburbs.

But the superintendents say Pilewski has the financial expertise that their other consultants and in-house business office staff don’t.

Pilewski did financial planning for the entertainment district surrounding the new Joliet casino, Rowe noted.

Pilewski also has a standing contract with the Chicago Teachers Union, Rowe said. So a separate conflict of interest memorandum of understanding is in the works to ensure “he would act on our benefit” during Bears stadium talks, the superintendent said.