How Rolling Meadows hopes to breathe new life into parts of Algonquin Road corridor

Rolling Meadows officials hope two new tax increment financing districts will help revive portions of the Algonquin Road commercial corridor that’s been subject to more and more retail and office vacancies.

The larger of the two TIFs recently approved by the city council covers a 59-acre area near the prominent Interstate 90/Route 53 interchange, and includes a long-standing gold office building and shuttered 1960s-era Holiday Inn and attached 1970s-era Holidome.

Developer Sam Patel, owner of the old Holidome and neighboring Aloft hotel and Holiday Inn Express properties, has long sought city help for teardown of the blighted motel and site preparation for a new residential tower with streetside retail.

An eligibility report by the city’s consultant SB Friedman noted several “large, highly visible” vacancies along Algonquin — including the closed Holidome indoor recreational atrium — and that the TIF would serve as an economic development tool to promote redevelopment and revitalization in the area.

The other TIF is further east: a 27-acre area roughly bounded by Algonquin Road, Carriage Way Drive, South Old Wilke Road and Salt Creek.

Following the council’s adoption of a set of six ordinances last week, property values within the two districts will be frozen at base levels, and future property tax revenues generated above that will be directed to special city-controlled funds to be used for redevelopment efforts in the area, including help for private developers.

School districts generally dislike the municipal financing tools because they tie up property tax revenues for at least 23 years, but the schools — and other local governments — unanimously supported Rolling Meadows’ proposed redevelopment plans and project areas during public joint review board meetings in March.

The larger district — called the Algonquin and Orchard TIF — could have an estimated $58 million in redevelopment project costs to be funded using incremental revenues, including $20 million for construction of public infrastructure, $15.8 million for building rehab, and $15 million for property assembly and site prep, according to the eligibility study.

The area has 14 properties — many of which contain old buildings and structures below minimum code standards, which are among the reasons making it eligible for TIF designation under state law, the report concludes.

Besides the Holidome, other sites include the Crossroads of Commerce office towers, U-Haul storage site, and strip mall and driveways near a new QuikTrip fueling center.

The smaller district — the Algonquin and Keystone TIF — could have an estimated $52 million in costs, including $20 million for public works, $15.3 million for building rehab and $11 million for property assembly and site prep.

That area has 21 parcels, which the consultant labeled “blighted” due to lack of property value growth, among other factors.

Properties include a strip shopping center that will house the city’s human services department, a long-vacant office building, an empty city-owned tract of land, a neighboring strip mall, and Plum Creek Supportive Living.