Rolling Meadows city manager urges marketing studies

Cities that succeed in putting real estate development deals together come armed with marketing studies and packages of incentives, Rolling Meadows City Manager Sarah Phillips told the city council Tuesday night.

Phillips said she and Valerie Dehner, director of community development, attended a regional meeting of the International Council of Shopping Centers on Tuesday, and "it wasn't very pretty."

Banks that previously would have required developers to have 20 percent of the capital needed for a project now are asking 60 percent, and public-private partnerships are necessary, she said.

One developer reported using 16 different funding mechanisms to put together the money to build a shopping center in a North Shore community, Phillips reported. Typically this conference in Chicago would have 4,000 attendees, this year 500 are registered.

This was all part of Phillips' argument to convince the council to approve two studies about development in the city's downtown area along Kirchoff Road, especially where the Dominick's stood on the south side of the street.

Goodman Williams Group of Chicago will do a marketing study to determine what types of projects could succeed in the area. The cost will not exceed $27,500. Kane, McKenna & Associates Inc. of Chicago will do a study of what incentives can be offered businesses to locate in the area. That report will cost $5,000 to $7,500.

The money for these studies will come from tax increment finance funds. The contracts were approved with Alderman Brad Judd casting a no vote.

In other business, Mayor Ken Nelson announced construction starts Monday, March 1, on the Route 53 frontage roads.

The west frontage road from Kirchoff to Algonquin roads will be one-way southbound for about two months. All northbound traffic must use the east frontage road. When the west road is finished, the east road will go under construction and be one-way northbound for the same length of time.

The project, which will be funded with $4 million in federal stimulus money, includes repairs such as replacing some concrete paving, drainage and asphalt.