Rolling Meadows hopes for redevelopment near Bears’ potential new home

Rolling Meadows officials are exploring implementation of two tax increment financing districts, including one near the prominent Interstate 90/Route 53 interchange and just a few exits from the Chicago Bears’ Arlington Park property in Arlington Heights.

The proposed 26-acre area northeast of the interchange would house three office buildings — including a noticeable, long-standing gold building — and a shuttered Holiday Inn and attached Holidome where Pete Townshend and The Who famously stayed in the 1960s, but of late has become a destination for social media sleuths to explore its decrepit, moldy environs.

“The visibility of this location is really important as far as a gateway into and out of our community, and especially knowing what might be coming in the future down the road, that may make this site a highly desirable development site,” City Manager Rob Sabo said.

The city council last week gave Sabo direction to engage a consultant who would do an eligibility study — labeling parcels blighted, among other criteria — and formally define the proposed TIF boundaries. A vote on a $75,000 contract is expected Aug. 26.

City officials want to use the economic development tool to incentivize revitalization of two spots along the Algonquin Road commercial corridor they argue would remain economically stagnant or underutilized without public investment.

After approval of ordinances by the council, property values within the two districts would be frozen at base levels, and future property tax revenues generated above that would go into special city-controlled funds to be used on infrastructure and public works projects in the area.

State law allows municipalities to give developers TIF funds for building demolition and rehabilitation. Sam Patel — owner of the old Holidome, as well as the neighboring Aloft hotel and Holiday Inn Express properties — has been asking city officials for years for help with redevelopment costs on the Holidome site.

At one point, he proposed converting the 1970s-era indoor recreational atrium into an assisted living/memory care facility. More recently, he’s suggested clearing the site to make way for a seven-story residential tower with streetside retail.

Sabo has expressed willingness to provide assistance from a potential TIF — as part of a public-private partnership — since it would allow the city “to exert leverage into the type of outcome and development that we would like to see in the property,” he said.

“This is a property that’s in a pretty bad state of repair and is in immediate need for demolition,” Sabo said. “We’ve been working with the property owner on effectuating that outcome. However, the eventual development of the site as well as the demolition of the site and site preparation all include significant amounts of investment.”

Next door, the Crossroads of Commerce office towers at 3501, 3601 and 3701 Algonquin Road have experienced various levels of vacancies and gone on and off the market in recent years. Some interested developers have suggested adaptive reuse as residential, or tearing down the structures for something different.

Should the buildings remain, they will require upgrades to mechanical systems and facade, Sabo said.

For instance, the gold building — at 3601 Algonquin — is due for window replacements.

“Finding gold windows is extraordinarily expensive and hard to find,” Sabo said.

The new TIF also could include U-Haul’s storage site and parking lots, which are highly visible from the Jane Addams Tollway and where there has been developer interest, Sabo said.

Rolling Meadows Alderman Mike Koehler also proposed the TIF boundaries be expanded just west of Route 53 to bring in a strip mall and driveways near a planned QuikTrip fueling center that was approved earlier this year.

Further east along Algonquin, the city’s other proposed TIF is a 25-acre area near Keystone Court. It would include a shopping center — of which the city is buying a portion to house its growing human services department — where building stucco is cracking and the parking lot is in need of repair, Sabo said.

The new TIF also would cover a long vacant, one-story office building at 5350 Keystone; an empty city-owned tract of land on Meadowbrook Court officials have tried to sell; a neighboring strip mall; and Plum Creek Supportive Living, which got zoning approvals last year to expand onto open property next door but has encountered financing issues, Sabo said.

A 23-year TIF at Kirchoff Road and Owl Drive — set up to finance the purchase of property and construction of the Riverwalk Condominiums residential and commercial development — is set to expire at the end of the year, having generated $7 million in incremental revenue.

The Golf Road TIF established a decade ago to help finance Arthur J. Gallagher Insurance’s headquarters relocation is due to expire in 2030. It’s generated $19 million so far.