St. Charles could create special taxing district for former Pheasant Run property
St. Charles city staff is recommending that a tax increment financing district be created for the former Pheasant Run Resort property to spur its redevelopment.
GSI Family Investments of Arizona LLC purchased the Pheasant Run Resort golf course from the DuPage Airport Authority for about $11.3 million and proposes to build four industrial buildings encompassing more than one million square feet of space along with 13 acres of stormwater detention. The 84.6-acre golf course is located south of the former Pheasant Run Resort buildings, adjacent to DuPage Airport.
Pheasant Run Resort closed its doors in March 2020 following a failed attempt to auction off the resort. In November, the St. Charles City Council's Planning and Development Committee recommended approval of a zoning map amendment and preliminary plat of subdivision for the proposed Pheasant Run Industrial Park.
The staff has been working with the developer to complete the engineering plan review before city council approval. Once a municipality creates a TIF district, its property assessment is frozen and new or increased taxes generated by improvements are used to pay for improvements or other development incentives.
"During the engineering review, it was identified that the electric service demand anticipated for the industrial users in the development will exceed the system capacity available at the site," St. Charles Community Development Director Russell Colby said in a memo to aldermen. "Significant system upgrades will be necessary to extend electric service from two city substations to the property."
Upgrading the system would cost approximately $6 million, Colby said. Because of the cost, the developer has said it would need some financial assistance from the city to proceed with the project.
"The city, as a municipal electric utility, requires all users to front fund the cost of providing service for a project and does offer any type of utility incentive," he said. "Staff believes that a TIF district would be advantageous, both for the industrial development and the remaining resort property."
The city's TIF consultant, Kane, McKenna and Associates, Inc., is preparing a report that documents the property's eligibility for a TIF district under state statute. According to a preliminary list, a total of $11.5 million would be eligible for TIF funding, which includes the electric service cost and incremental oversizing of other utilities.
Colby said the exact amount and schedule for reimbursement will be negotiated and presented as a part of a redevelopment agreement.
"Preliminary projections suggest that the TIF increment from the industrial development would be sufficient to reimburse the developer for these expenses and generate significant additional increment that could contribute to funding other improvements in the TIF district, including redevelopment of the blighted resort buildings," he said.
McGrath Honda is redeveloping the former Pheasant Run Mega Center located adjacent to the property.