Prospect Heights has $2.8 million deal to sell last of arena land
Prospect Heights has a tentative $2.8 million deal to sell the last piece of land once targeted for a 12,000-seat arena.
The city council is expected to vote Monday on terms of a deal to sell about 10 acres of vacant city land, just south of Chicago Executive Airport, to Conor Commercial Real Estate.
The Rosemont-based real estate firm wants to build a 130,000-square-foot speculative industrial building on the property at 25 Piper Lane. Preliminary plans show that the building will be 32 feet tall and include two separate 2,600-square-foot areas for office space.
If approved, the deal will be the final chapter in the city's effort to sell about 33 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.
However, private funding fell through, and voters rejected issuing bonds to help fund the development.
"This will be good because it will clean up the last of the arena land that the city acquired," said Dan Peterson, the city's director of building and development. "It will be good to get that property back on the tax rolls and viable."
Though the property is next to condominiums, apartments and single-family homes, it is zoned for industrial use. Conor Commercial Real Estate plans to apply for a 6b classification, a Cook County tax incentive for industrial properties that lowers the assessed value for 12 years.
The city council will eventually need to decide how to use the proceeds; one option will be to pay off the loan the city used to purchase the land. The city council meeting is 6:30 p.m. Monday at 8 N. Elmhurst Road.