Story posted Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Still No Word On 'Triangle' Progress
By RICHARD MAYER Assistant Managing Editor
Will Mt. Prospect's downtown "small triangle" area ever be redeveloped?
Almost a year since village officials approved a $40 million redevelopment project for the triangle, nothing has come to fruition due to the sour state of the economy.
And some feel nothing will change in the triangle, now mostly vacant, for quite sometime.
Village Manager Michael Janonis thinks something will "break one way or the other in the next couple years" for the area bounded by Busse Avenue, Main Street (Elmhurst Road) and Northwest Hwy.
According to Director of Community Development Bill Cooney, developer John Heimbaugh was given PUD (Planned Unit Development) approval for his project. A PUD is a designed grouping of varied land uses, such as housing, recreation, commercial center, and industrial parks, all within one contained development or subdivision.
In the Village of Mt. Prospect, a PUD approval is valid for five years. How ever, if a project is ever considered "dead", the village board can revoke approval and the project would be eliminated. It is up to the board to determine if the project will ever become a reality.
"I think something needs to be done within the next couple years because the clock is ticking," said Janonis. "TIF (Tax Increment Financing) revenues are needed to take care of infrastructure costs and we have to be able to generate incremental revenue from this project to cover initial expenses. We can't wait until the last years of the TIF to do something."
A TIF is a public financing method which has been used for redevelopment and community improvement projects. With normal financing, the village issues tax-exempt revenue bonds to finance public infrastructure redevelopment within a certain area and allows repayment of the bonds based on increments of growth of property tax within a certain date.
Heimbaugh's downtown development proposal calls for 31,000 sq. ft. of retail along with two five-story buildings on the east and north side of the two-acre project. There will be an additional seven-story building on the west side of the small triangle.
The project will also include an internal plaza for outdoor dining and public gatherings.
A year after initial village approval, Heimbaugh still has not obtained enough financing for the project.
The village will not transfer ownership of its properties in the triangle until Heimbaugh has obtained financing on a construction loan for phase one. He is required to have between 30%-50% of residential units in the development pre-sold before the village chips in financing.
"We continue to work on alternative designs and I am hopeful in the next 24 months the market will be good enough to do something," said Heimbaugh.
Heimbaugh said development on smaller scale in the triangle remains an option.
"We are trying to stay flexible for when the market clears, but we have no predetermined ideas," Heimbaugh said.
Heimbuagh added that since last September when the banking industry collapsed with the demise of Lehman Brothers, he and his company have not pursued any other developments.
"I consider ourselves (Heimbaugh Corp.) lucky we don't have projects in the middle of development or default," Heimbaugh said. "We are just in a holding pattern for now."
According to Cooney, for the time being, a parking lot is expected to be installed across the street of Ye Olde Town Inn where the former Meersman house was located.
"This is just short term to clean up the property and provide additional parking for Blues Bar, Ye Olde Town Inn and Submarine Express," Cooney said.
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