Schaumburg favors spot for convention center parking deck
Schaumburg village board members agreed Tuesday that the area just north of the Schaumburg Convention Center was the best place for a five-level parking deck to address an existing demand there and leave more visible land available along Meacham Road to the west for a self-proposed entertainment district.
However, they also decided to wait until the end of the year to see plans for the entertainment district they've requested from developers before locking themselves into a parking decision that could be at odds with those plans.
The location board members chose over two others would add a net total of 764 spaces to the campus of the convention center and its adjoining Renaissance Hotel.
Though this parking deck would be farther from future entertainment venues along Meacham, they would likely provide their own parking, Mayor Tom Dailly said.
Since last fall, the board has been discussing the need for additional parking for some of the larger events at the convention center as well as the entertainment district hoped to be built north and west of it.
The favored option would provide a structure with 1,060 parking spaces. Construction would eliminate 468 current spaces but rebuild 172 of them on the ground.
The estimated cost is approximately $30 million for the presently proposed five levels and $6 million more for a sixth if needed.
Trustee Marge Connelly expressed concern that construction of the parking deck could be disruptive to the campus' parking in the short term. She suggested the possibility of using the land immediately west of the Renaissance Hotel - the northeast corner of Meacham Road and the I-90 tollway long considered for a performing arts center - as a site that could be temporarily paved for parking while the deck to the northeast was built.
Connelly added that she'd think twice if such a measure were a shortcut solution the village wouldn't allow anyone else to make.