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A Millennium Park for suburbs? Schaumburg could build urban-style park at ex-Motorola site

Schaumburg trustees Tuesday will consider approving a $1.1 million bid for construction of the first phase of a 12-acre, urban-style park ultimately envisioned as a sort of Millennium Park for the suburbs.

Planned for the former Motorola Solutions campus, the park when completed could house such amenities as a large outdoor performance venue, a sculpture garden, a dog park and a winter ice rink.

Phase one, however, will focus on the basic outline of the park and providing passive recreation opportunities to serve residents of the area, before the next set of upgrades are budgeted and built.

Schaumburg Landscape and Design Planner Todd Wenger said the first phase is expected to be completed in November, but the timing of future phases depends on village finances and the rate that more residential and commercial property joins what's already been built on the 225-acre Veridian development.

“We don't want to build more than the area can support,” Wenger said.

And that's why his current guess is that a large outdoor performance venue could be one of the last components of the park. But that's not to say some smaller area for concerts and the like couldn't be developed sooner, Wenger said.

Martam Construction Inc. of Elgin bid $1,147,773.62 — the lowest among four bidders — for the job of grading the park, laying the foundation, installing the main concrete walkways and providing the early landscaping.

The village's capital improvement plan has budgeted $2.5 million for the first phase of the park. Though that also includes a yet-to-be-bid bike path of approximately $350,000, Wenger said the bids of Martam Construction and other firms came in significantly under budget for this part of the project.

The early cost savings could help make the development of some future aspect of the park arrive sooner — such as a hammock grove, a rest and leisure area, he said.

Other later areas of the park that have been discussed include tilted lawn panels, water features and a plaza.

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A site plan of the proposed first phase of the 12-acre, urban-style park the village of Schaumburg will build this year as part of the Veridian development on the former Motorola Solutions campus. Officials envision the site as a Millennium Park for the suburbs. Courtesy of village of Schaumburg
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