Arlington Heights gets three offers for vacant corner
Arlington Heights has received three proposals from firms interested in developing a vacant 1.4-acre property on the northeast corner of Golf and Arlington Heights roads.
While village staff members haven't yet reviewed the individual plans, they were required at this week's village board meeting to disclose the names of each developer and purchase offers for the village-owned land, after a request for proposals/sealed bids in February.
The firms and offers are from Troutman & Dams LLC for $1.2 million, Paragon Real Estate and Strategic Real Estate Services Corp. for $1.2 million, and John Kallergis for $1 million.
The property has been vacant for years after the village purchased and demolished a gas station, restaurant and strip mall. Because the site once included a dry cleaners, crews have performed environmental cleanup, and the village plans to file paperwork with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency for no further remediation, according to Charles Witherington-Perkins, the village's director of planning and community development.
"We have three proposals from three good firms and we will vet those out so we can hopefully get a good-quality development that will re-energize that corner," he said. "It's a great corner. It's got excellent visibility and tremendous traffic volumes. It is a true retail-commercial corner."
One of the firms who submitted a bid, Strategic Real Estate Services Corp., was chosen by the village in 2014 to come up with a redevelopment plan for the neighboring International Plaza on Golf Road. Even after receiving an extension until Dec. 31, 2016, Strategic officials told the village there weren't enough major tenants in the marketplace.
The village extended a tax increment financing district for the Arlington Heights/Golf area - freezing property taxes going to local governments at a certain point to help fund redevelopment projects - but development has been stalled for years by lawsuits and the recession.
"In a perfect world, we would love to see the whole site developed comprehensively, but at this point, we wanted to entertain proposals and see what we could just get for the corner," said Village Manager Randy Recklaus. "The economy's changed and the TIF clock is running, and so we want to try to get something out of it."
The village staff plans to review the three proposals before making a recommendation to the village board within the next few months.