Schaumburg paying consultant $248,500 to create entertainment district plan
Schaumburg trustees Tuesday approved a $248,500 contract for a consultant to create the master plan for an entertainment district at the southeast corner of Algonquin and Meacham roads that would include the existing convention center and a possible performing arts center along the Jane Addams Tollway.
Ginkgo Planning and Design Inc. of Orland Park is expected to complete the concept plan in about 10 months, Schaumburg Economic Development Manager Matt Frank said.
Christopher B. Burke Engineering in Rosemont and SB Friedman Development Advisors in Chicago also will assist with the project, and their fees are included in the contract.
Meanwhile, village officials will continue to consider whether an $87 million, 2,800-seat performing arts center should be built near the west side of the Renaissance Hotel as an anchor for the entertainment district.
In January, the village paid $6.58 million for the single-story, 110,000-square-foot Woodfield Green Executive Centre immediately north of the convention center and hotel to eventually demolish it and make way for restaurants and other entertainment venues along Meacham Road.
The reconfiguration of Thoreau Drive, where it intersects Meacham Road, is considered a strong possibility whether or not a performing arts center is built nearby, Village Manager Brian Townsend said.
The new contract is for design work comparable and complementary to what Ginkgo has been doing for the last two years for the village on the former Motorola Solutions campus on the west side of Meacham Road, Frank said.
There they are working with UrbanStreet Group LLC, which owns all the former campus not purchased by Zurich North America or leased back by Motorola. Though the entertainment district on the east side of the road will have a different focus than the offices, retail and residential buildings on the west, both developments are intended to blend. Restaurants and some entertainment venues also will be on the west side.