Hoffman Estates to let Stonegate TIF district expire

Hoffman Estates officials have declined to approve or even discuss a request to extend the life of a tax-increment finance district for the Stonegate Conference Center on Higgins Road and the still-vacant land around it.

Hopes were once high that a hotel would share the 10.4-acre site of the TIF district, but those plans have not materialized.

Documents were already prepared this week to extend the nearly 23-year-old TIF district's life for another 12 years, but the item was passed over during a village board meeting Monday after it failed even to receive a second motion needed to start discussion.

Mayor Bill McLeod said that as TIF districts are normally used to foster pending development plans, there was no reason to extend this one.

"I think the feeling was that, as there is no viable proposal for that property, there's no reason to extend the TIF," McLeod said. "We'd be extending it just to extend it."

McLeod added that the decision probably was a disappointment to the developer of the site, Poplar Creek LLC, but that the village board really saw no strong options for further development on the site to justify the TIF extension.

A TIF district is a funding mechanism used to foster development in which some of the property taxes generated from the district are reinvested into the property.

The public funding is obtained by freezing general property taxes at the level of the district's first year - in this case, 1986. As development occurs and property values increase, the additional taxes collected go directly toward these public improvements.

A TIF district normally expires after 23 years or when the cost of public improvements are paid off. Twelve-year extensions, taking a district to a maximum of 35 years, are permitted by law.

McLeod said redevelopment plans for Barrington Square Mall on the opposite side of Higgins Road are currently under way. But if they meet the criteria for TIF consideration, an entirely new district could be created there.

The land containing the cluster of restaurants at the southeast corner of Higgins and Barrington roads was originally part of the TIF district back in 1986, when an auto mall was proposed for the site. But that 12.4-acre part was removed when the district was amended during the '90s.

McLeod said it's still possible for Poplar Creek LLC to re-request the TIF extension, but no reconsideration will be possible after the district's expiration on Dec. 22.

Representatives of the development partnership could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

The developers' requested action this week also including extending to April 30, 2017, a note identifying $3.58 million in development expenses as eligible for compensation from the interest on TIF taxes.

To date, since the Stonegate Conference Center opened in 2000, probably only about a third of these expenses have been covered by annual payments from the TIF fund.

But if the TIF district expires as scheduled next month, no further payments for these eligible expenses would follow.