Prospect Heights zoning board to review proposed new hangars at Chicago Executive Airport

New York-based Sky Harbour’s proposal for seven new hangars at Chicago Executive Airport will go before Prospect Heights’ planning and zoning board of appeals at 7 p.m. Wednesday for review and recommendation.

The requested variations and rezoning will then seek final approval from the Prospect Heights city council on Aug. 24.

Prospect Heights and Wheeling officials are also expected to approve an intergovernmental agreement regarding the project in the coming weeks as well.

Half of one of the 42,800-square-foot hangars will cross the municipal border within the airport into Wheeling.

“Prospect Heights will be the permitting authority for the whole project,” Prospect Heights Building & Development Director Dan Peterson said. “We’re looking forward to the project. We believe it will be a boon to our communities.”

The Prospect Heights city council has already recommended a Class 6B tax incentive for the project to the Cook County Board. Such incentives — intended to keep industrial development in Cook competitive with the collar counties — essentially cuts property taxes on a redevelopment in half for 10 years before they gradually rise back to normal over the next two years.

Progress over the last year has included cleaning up the former site of a demolished, 58-year-old hotel that’s contributing four of the project’s 23 acres. The property lines between that site and the remaining Aviation Plaza building at 1098 S. Milwaukee Ave. have also been cleaned up.

The 100-year-old airport also had to buy the former hotel site from Sky Harbour and lease it back to the company to ensure Chicago Executive was the only landlord involved.

The plan was tweaked from the original proposal for eight 37,000-square-foot hangars to accommodate stormwater detention, Chicago Executive Airport Executive Director Jeff Miller said. But the basic intent remains the same.

“Everything seems to be moving along as we anticipated,” he added.

A groundbreaking ceremony is being tentatively scheduled for mid-September, but Peterson said site work alone will certainly see the project through the end of this year.

Last year, the cost of the project was estimated at $100 million, while the facility was projected to generate $500 million in economic activity in its first six years.