Elburn hunts for money to finish Blackberry Creek streets

The developers of the massive Blackberry Creek subdivision have officially defaulted on paying for streets and other amenities they were supposed to build, the Elburn village board decided this week.

The village is now billing the surety companies that underwrote the developers' completion bonds, asking them to finish nearly $10 million in work.

Blackberry Creek Development Corp. and the Inland Land Appreciation Fund II LLC, are the developers. Blackberry Creek is a subsidiary of B&B Enterprises, which is based in St. Charles, and took over most of the development from Inland. Foreclosure was started in September 2009 by two banks, Amcore and Benchmark, against the developers. Since then, Benchmark was closed by the FDIC and taken over by MB Financial.

A call requesting comment from B&B Enterprises has not been returned.

The village wants, among other things, a finish coat of asphalt on at least 8 miles of streets in the subdivision, which is on the east side of Elburn between Hughes and Keslinger roads. Typically, the finish coat is not applied in a subdivision until construction is finished so as not to have heavy truck traffic ruin it. A park also remains unbuilt, and there are some construction fill hills that have not been removed.

Trustee Jeff Walter, who lives in the subdivision, said the village has repeatedly asked the developers to finish the work, and that they refused to do so.

The subdivision is about 70 percent platted, he believes. On the northern end, vacant lots are interspersed with occupied houses.

The surety companies could do the work themselves, or send money for the village to do it, Walter said.

Construction of the 1,250-unit subdivision started in 2002.