Rosemont creates new TIF district for stadium, hotel, restaurants
Rosemont enacted its eighth tax increment financing district Wednesday, which village officials hope will pave the way to a new 16-acre mixed-use development and minor league baseball stadium.
Through six different TIF ordinances approved at Wednesday's village board meeting, property taxes paid to local governments within the area will be frozen at their current level for the next 23 years. Taxes collected above that level will go to a special fund controlled by the village to pay for public and private improvements.
As part of the village board's action, the area that encompasses the new mixed-use development is being carved out of an existing TIF district that includes the nearby MB Financial Park entertainment district. That extends the time funds can be generated to pay for development costs.
The village's TIF consultant, Kane, McKenna, and Associates, estimates the site's equalized assessed value - the amount on which property tax payments are determined - will rise from $4,895 to more than $65 million by the time the TIF expires.
The village is planning a redevelopment of vacant land south of Balmoral Avenue and west of the Tri-State Tollway to include a 5-story, 163-room boutique hotel, the 3-story office building headquarters of chicken processor Koch Foods, and as many as three restaurants, including the 8,500-square-foot Buddy V's Ristorante.
The village board already has approved redevelopment agreements with developers, who are receiving the village land for free. The village plans to recover costs from increased tax revenues once the land is developed.
In preparation for the new development, to be called The Pearl, the village as many as seven years ago began buying up and demolishing about a dozen light industrial buildings.
Pearl Street already has been relocated west so developers have a square space on which to build. Soil tests recently were completed on the site of the proposed hotel, said Mayor Brad Stephens.
On Wednesday, workers were busy digging on site and putting finishing touches on new Pearl Street sidewalks. Construction on the development is expected to begin in late spring or early summer, with a grand opening planned for a year later.
North of Balmoral Avenue, the village has proposed a 7,000-seat minor league baseball stadium on 10 acres of village-owned vacant land Stephens once pitched to the Chicago Cubs for free. While negotiations continue to secure an ownership group, plans call for the stadium to open in summer 2018.