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Land sale would close book on Prospect Heights arena saga

Prospect Heights is close to selling the final parcels once targeted for a 12,000-seat arena just south of Chicago Executive Airport.

Mayor Nick Helmer announced Wednesday the city is nearing a deal with a developer for the 10 acres, contingent on approval from the city council.

The announcement came during the annual "State of the Village and the City" address to the Wheeling/Prospect Heights Area Chamber of Commerce. Wheeling Village President Pat Horcher also shared updates about plans for a new downtown emerging along Dundee Road.

The former Prospect Heights arena site directly west of the city public works building on Piper Lane has enough room for two industrial buildings, Helmer said. The area is zoned for heavy commercial industrial use.

But details of the potential buyer - described only as a national commercial developer - and plans for the land remain confidential as the city continues negotiations.

The sale would be a final chapter in the city's effort to sell off about 30 acres once primed for an $88 million arena.

A development group had plans for the arena to be the home of an expansion franchise in the now-defunct Continental Basketball Association and the touring ice skating show "Stars on Ice" starring Olympic gold medalists Tara Lipinski and Scott Hamilton.

Developers and city officials even got so far as to hold a ceremonial groundbreaking in 2000.

But the group failed to gain enough financial backing and the arena plan was abandoned after voters rejected issuing bonds to help fund the development in 2004.

Helmer also provided updates Wednesday on efforts to establish a downtown at the intersection of Route 83 and Camp McDonald Road.

A city committee has consensus on a broad vision to develop apartment or condominium buildings with retail space on the first floor. That follows a similar template used by other communities in the Northwest suburbs, including neighboring Wheeling.

"Prospect Heights is beginning to have its own identity," Helmer said. "What I'd like to see is what's happening in Wheeling."

For Wheeling, Horcher highlighted the village's development along Dundee Road.

Wheeling Town Center, which includes a 300-unit luxury apartment building, CMX movie theater and restaurants, is the anchor development at Dundee Road and Northgate Parkway. Over the past year, construction on the apartments began, and City Works Eatery and Pour House, Starbucks and Inland Bank have joined the development.

Additionally, Uptown 500, a 321-unit apartment building with 10,000 square feet of retail space at 500 W. Dundee Road, gained approval this year.

Construction on the first speculative industrial buildings to be built in two decades in Wheeling also began this year.

A $13 million industrial building at Lake-Cook Road and Milwaukee Avenue and smaller facility at 1075 Chaddick Drive will add to the village's industrial space. The village's industrial vacancy rates are at historic lows, Horcher said.

"Wheeling is a diverse community and our people are absolutely who we are," Horcher said. "But our economy - our industry and commerce - are the heart that pumps blood throughout our town."

Prospect Heights victorious in 2005 lawsuit over failed arena

  Wheeling Village President Pat Horcher Joe Lewnard/jlewnard@dailyherald.com, 2017
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