THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2006
$1.2 Million Jump In Uptown Costs
By DWIGHT ESAU
Journal Reporter
The cost of Park Ridge's Uptown redevelopment litigation just went up by $1.2 million, according to a city official.
Because of the delay in closing on phase III of the Uptown redevelopment project with PRC Partners, caused by a lawsuit against the city, the cost of the city's share of a parking garage went up by that amount, according to City Mgr. Tim Schuenke.
Together with the $200,000 in additional costs the city is incurring in the settlement of a lawsuit by Summit Square Retirement Home, this pushes the direct cost increases caused by the lawsuits to $1.4 million, not including legal fees.
"While the lawsuit was going on last year, the cost of steel and concrete went up significantly, and PRC was unable to lock on previous prices in October as it planned to do," Schuenke said
The $1.2 million is a new line item in the list of project costs in the city's proposed Series 2005 B and C bonds, which are expected to be approved by the city council in March.
Total costs in this bond issue, are now estimated to be at least $18.9 million, compared to $16.4 million when the is sue was first proposed last year. The bond issue will fund all of the city's share of Uptown redevelopment-related expenses, including purchase of the Summit Mall ($2.6 million), facade upgrades for existing Uptown businesses ($850,000), design of the city commons upgrade in front of the library and along Touhy Avenue (cost not determined yet), cleanup of a portion of the old Bredemann dealership site ($396,600), and such things as the parking garage, streetscape work, site work, streetlights, traffic signals, sewers, water mains, reconstruction of Northwest Highway, and landscaping, in Target Area II.
Without the litigation, this bond issue would have been approved six months ago and work would be well underway on the parking garage, Schuenke said. The city's share of the garage cost has now risen to about $7.7 million. Part of the garage will be devoted to public parking, and part to spaces for residents of condominiums to be built in Target Area II.
About $11.8 million of the total represents the city's commitment to PRC under the redevelopment agreement between the two parties. The rest represents direct costs to taxpayers to complete projects associated with the redevelopment, plus the Summit Mall acquisition (closed in January), and the facade program, in which the city will pay up to half the cost of any facade upgrade that any existing Uptown business wants to undertake, starting in the next fiscal year.