Water park foreclosure another setback to Hoffman Estates' plans

Hoffman Estates officials said Wednesday they still believe an entertainment district is the right development for the Prairie Stone Business Park, even as the proposal for a water park and hotel there was dealt a blow.

A foreclosure lawsuit has apparently been filed against the developer of the plans for the indoor water park, hotel and conference center.

Citizens First National Bank in Princeton, Ill. filed the suit against the water park's developers for non-repayment of a $7.6 million loan due last June, according to ChicagoRealEstateDaily.com.

Representatives of the bank declined to comment Wednesday, while developer Joseph Buralli of Water Park H2Otels Prairie Stone LLC could not be reached for comment.

Village officials said they had no personal knowledge of the lawsuit and were waiting to hear from Buralli themselves.

The news comes as the latest setback to the planned entertainment district of the Prairie Stone Business Park, which already holds a Cabela's store and the beleaguered Sears Centre arena recently taken over by the village.

The $85 million SplasH20 WaterPark hotel and conference center has been on hold for years for a number of reasons, the most recent being the state of the economy.

As such, village officials aren't overly surprised that plans for the project aren't moving forward quickly.

Now they're just wondering whether development plans for the site need to return to the drawing board.

"The fact of the matter is that the economy is down," Hoffman Estates Mayor William McLeod said. "But someone will come in and develop this land."

Waiting for the economy to improve seems to be the only option, but the village isn't rethinking its general intentions for the area to be an entertainment destination, McLeod said.

Any new or different proposals will need to match those intentions, he added.

So far, only the Cabela's store in the entertainment district is operating exactly as intended.

The village has just taken over the underperforming Sears Centre and brought in a new management company in hopes of maintaining it as the anchor of the entertainment district.

A proposal for an outdoor music venue, the Prairie Creek Amphitheater, seems even less likely to move forward than the water park and hotel which were to be built next to it, McLeod said.

This is largely due to noise issues with the amphitheater that appear impossible to overcome.