Lombard approves incentives for redevelopment of former seminary site
A planned $159 million redevelopment of a former seminary campus in Lombard is one step closer to becoming a reality.
Schaumburg-based Hoffmann Alpha Omega Development Group, doing business as Hoffmann 600 Lombard LLC, is planning to construct a mixed-use project on the former Northern Baptist Theological Seminary campus along Butterfield Road.
To help with the redevelopment, Lombard trustees last week unanimously agreed to give Hoffmann 600 up to $27.5 million in tax increment financing dollars over 18 years.
Hoffmann 600 has grand ambitions for the roughly 27-acre site at 600-690 Butterfield, which has been vacant since the seminary relocated to Lisle in 2017.
The centerpiece attraction is to be a combined GolfSocial driving range and Moretti's restaurant. There are plans to link the restaurant and recreation complex to an existing Westin hotel to the west.
Developers also want to build a gas station and other restaurants fronting Butterfield. An apartment complex east of the golf driving range is slated to be built in a later phase.
The former seminary site is a part of the Butterfield Yorktown TIF district.
In a TIF district, property taxes paid to local governments are frozen for up to 23 years. Any extra property tax money collected within the area after the district is established goes into a special fund to help pay for certain improvements.
When it was created in 2017, the Butterfield Yorktown TIF included the JCPenney store within the nearby Yorktown Shopping Center, part of the mall's ring road, a strip mall along the ring road called Yorktown Convenience Center, the Westin hotel and an office building on 22nd Street.
Hoffmann 600 initially requested up to $31.5 million over 10 years from the TIF district. But late last year, the village's economic and community development committee reduced the amount down to $27.5 million.
The amount of time the developers would have had access to the TIF money originally was set at 16 years. But they negotiated to have it changed to 18 years. The TIF district expires on Dec. 31, 2041.
Lombard also is considering acquiring a 0.7-acre portion of the former seminary site to construct a new water tower, which would be separate from the redevelopment project.