Turkish school project back in Mt. Prospect

Since the early 2000s, Mount Prospect trustees have been waiting for a school and Turkish community center at 501 Midway Drive to get off the ground.

Now it appears that the Turkish American Society of Chicago and the Science Academy of Chicago finally have a workable plan to make the 42,614-square-foot community center and 29,569-square-foot school a reality.

The plan is to build the facility in two phases.

Phase one will include the construction of the first level of the school and the majority of the cultural center. Phase two will include the second level of the school and the remaining areas of the cultural center — the auditorium and a multipurpose room.

Phase one should take two years, while phase two would take another five years after the first phase is complete.

The Mount Prospect village board approved the conditional use by a nearly unanimous vote, although several worry there might be a snag.

Trustee A. John Korn had the only “no” vote, saying he's concerned about the reliability of the funding.

Community Development Director Bill Cooney said the plan is the same one that was originally submitted. The oldest zoning approval for the project was given in 2003 and the most recent in 2009.

The biggest hurdle has been the financing. But the project director, Yasar Senlik, said he has $1.5 million in hand and a commitment from Fifth Third Bank to the Turkish American Society of Chicago for $2.7 million, needed to complete the $4.2 million first phase.

Financing is still iffy for the second phase, however.

Mount Prospect Mayor Irvana Wilks said she's concerned the board has been approving projects for this property since 2003.

“But the approval expired without your even pulling a permit,” she said to Senlik. “What is the guarantee that this will move forward?”

Senlik said some of the players have changed. “We do not have the same administration as before,” he said.

Trustee Paul Hoefert is worried the building will be left uncompleted if there is no funding for phase two.

Serdar Kartal, the principal of the school, the Science Academy of Chicago, said he is confident that the new building will attract more students. There are 143 students at the present school in Niles, who come from Des Plaines, Niles and Mount Prospect.

Kartal anticipates 280 students will come to the new building, based on the rise in enrollment over three years.

Remzi Tandag, a member of the construction committee, said that although the first phase of construction is 60 percent, the second floor is going to be completed, leaving only the space inside for the auditorium and the gymnasium and the second-floor classrooms to be completed in the second phase. None of this will be that much extra work, he said.

“The auditorium and the gymnasium is a big box, basically,” he said. “The second floor of the school is just the classrooms.”

He said he lives in Schaumburg takes his child to school in Niles before traveling to Plainfield for work. Others in the Turkish community in his area do not make that effort, he said. Those parents would send their children to the new building.

Hoefert said he was also concerned that the bank was giving too little money to the project.

“If your enrollment doesn't go up and if you don't get the next million dollars (to complete the project), you will end up with a partially completed building, and that's how it will stay.”

Still, he said, he was personally impressed with Senlik and his commitment to the project.

“I sincerely hope and pray that you and your friends have a successful outcome to this project. You have been coming before us for many years,” Korn told Senlik.

But he also reminded him that the last time the project was approved, Korn warned he would not vote in favor if it came back another time. “This is that time, and I am going to stick to my commitment.