District 54 hires broker to sell donated Schaumburg land
Schaumburg Township Elementary District 54 school board members have hired the Oak Brook-based real estate broker CBRE to assist in the district's latest attempt to sell a donated 4.4-acre parcel in Schaumburg.
Setback requirements and a body of water on the site reducing the amount of buildable land are believed responsible for the failure of two previous sales contracts during their due diligence periods and a lack of qualified bids since, District 54 officials said.
The land, donated by a developer in 1993, is at the southwest corner of Thacker Street and Verde Drive, a couple blocks east of Conant High School.
Two months ago, the district reduced the minimum price of the land from $995,000 to $550,000 to reflect this, but did not receive any qualified responses during its attempt to solicit bids.
Under the Illinois School Code, a district unsuccessful in selling land independently may engage a licensed broker to sell it for a commission not to exceed 7 percent.
The body of water on the site reduces the amount of buildable land to about 2.5 acres, but the village of Schaumburg's setback requirements are a further issue.
The previous attempts to sell the land that fell through were in 2014 and 2016, District 54 Assistant Superintendent for Business Operations Ric King said.
"The setback requirements have caused each bidder so far to back away," King said. "This is why we had to lower the price. They couldn't make enough profit with the number of homes they could locate on the property. The setback requirements could go for a variance yet neither went that far in the process."
Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 also has faced recent difficulties in selling vacant land in Schaumburg for potential residential development.
Last month, the District 211 school board voted 6-1 to sell a 62-acre site west of Plum Grove Road and east of Summit Drive to last year's third-highest bidder, Nitti Development LLC of Glendale Heights, after the top bidder M/I Homes dropped out of its contract during the due diligence period and second-highest bidder Pulte Home Co. LLC said it could no longer honor its bid.
Nitti Development's bid of $17.7 million exceeded District 211's $17 million minimum price.