Rosemont plans TIF district at new Pearl development site
Rosemont plans to create its eighth tax increment financing district to fund improvements in a new mixed-use development where a hotel, restaurants and offices are planned.
The area bounded by Balmoral Avenue on the north, Farragut Avenue on the south, the Tri-State Tollway on the east, and railroad tracks on the west is already part of the village's fourth TIF district, which includes the MB Financial Park entertainment district. But officials want to carve out the section that will be home to the new 16-acre development, to be called The Pearl, thereby extending the time funds can be generated to pay for development costs.
Property taxes paid to local governments by property owners within TIF districts are frozen at the current level for 23 years, and taxes above that level collected within the area go into a special fund controlled by the village. That money, in turn, is used to pay for public and private improvements.
Mayor Brad Stephens said revenues generated within the new TIF district could be used to pay for new parking lots and a potential garage, new roads, streetlights and stormwater detention.
The vision for The Pearl includes a 150-room boutique hotel, three restaurants, two office buildings, and the potential for a 2,200-seat music and stage show venue or additional retail space. Negotiations are ongoing to bring Buddy V's Ristorante to one of the restaurant pads, while Koch Foods, a chicken processor, is planning to move its headquarters from Park Ridge to one of the new Rosemont office buildings.
While street work has already begun, construction of the buildings is expected to start next spring and be complete by the spring or summer of 2017.
Stephens hopes to enact the new TIF district by the time shovels are in the ground next spring.
On Wednesday, the village board took the first step in that process, passing an ordinance that calls for a public hearing and convening of a joint review board of local taxing bodies in connection with designating the area as a TIF district.
If enacted next year, the TIF district would expire in 2039, though the village could receive an extension from the state legislature to make it last until 2051.
TIF 4, encompassing the entertainment district, is due to expire in 2034.
Stephens said it's possible the new TIF district could be expanded in the future to include land north of Balmoral Avenue that will be home to a new minor league baseball stadium, expected to open in the summer of 2018.