Vanishing act: Schaumburg neighborhood meets its demise
A 55-year-old neighborhood along Schaumburg’s southwest border is vanishing from the landscape this week as crews tear down longstanding homes to make way for an industrial development.
All 19 houses lining Long Avenue are expected to be down by the end of next week, said Laura Stark, construction manager for Chicago-based Logistics Property Company LLC.
The firm purchased the homes with plans to replace them with two industrial buildings totaling 436,500 square feet this summer, said Ben Fish, vice president of its Midwest region.
Long Avenue sits near the Wintrust Field ballpark and just west of Experior Logistics’ planned trucking headquarters. However, that firm’s development permit will expire at the end of the month without construction having started.
Experior’s plan was an influence on Logistics Property Company’s interest in the adjacent site and an inspiration for Long Avenue homeowners to sell amid concerns about truck noise and traffic.
The end of the neighborhood has been an emotional experience for longtime residents from the time initial purchase offers were made more than 18 months ago until the move-out deadline arrived April 21.
Resident Dina Menini said she once thought she’d never leave the property where she’d lived for a quarter century, but Experior’s plans threatened the peaceful, rural atmosphere that had attracted her and her neighbors over the decades.
“We had a neighborhood unlike any other,” she said. “We were a family on that street.”
The village board annexed Long Avenue into Schaumburg in December and approved two tax incentives for Logistics Property Company.
A tax increment financing district is projected to increase the equalized assessed value of the 70 acres it covers from today’s $2.8 million to about $53.5 million over its 23 years.
Schaumburg Economic Development Director Matt Frank said Wintrust Field and the commuter station parking lot were included in the TIF district in case improvement projects on their sites become desirable during that time.
A TIF district sets aside any increase in property taxes for on-site public improvements. A total of $111 million is estimated to be generated for eligible projects.
A Cook County 6B incentive effectively cuts the site's property taxes in half for 10 years, after which they gradually increase over the next two years before returning to normal.
Experior bought 55 acres at the southwest corner of Irving Park and Rodenburg roads from the village for $7.5 million in 2022. The transportation company received a deadline extension to complete its headquarters project but the village has declined a request to extend it again, Frank said.