Countryside TIF District Still Presents Challenges

Yorkville is open to a wide range of ideas from developers for the 18-acre Countryside Center property on the northwest corner of routes 34 and 47.

That’s the consensus from the city’s Administration Committee, anyway.

The property was once the subject of two tax increment financing (TIF) district agreements: One in 2005 included 80,000 in retail space; another in 2008 included 166,000 square feet in retail space. After foreclosure proceedings, the parcel belongs to Bank of America, whose representative hasn’t named a purchase price, said Lynn Dubajic, executive director of the Yorkville Economic Development Corporation.

“I have left messages that are enticing to get that number and have not gotten that,” Dubajic told the Administration Committee.

Dubajic also said she took a developer to see the property about two weeks ago and plans to take another developer, who had shown interest before, to see it this week.

The property sits at the intersection of the city’s main crossroads, but it presents some challenges, Dubajic said. Officials are working to provide the property access to Route 47 during the upcoming widening project. The parcel also doesn’t include space for outlots, which would provide a developer more revenue, and is too small for some big box retailers, such as Meijer.

City leaders are willing to be flexible on aesthetics and retail square-footage for development proposals there, and believe a multi-phase project is more realistic than expecting a developer to build a shopping center.

Meanwhile, the Countryside property is presenting challenges for city officials, too. The city is paying more than $300,000 a year on bonds issued in the Countryside TIF fund, which is receiving less than $10,000 a year from investments and taxes. That means the $1.88 million TIF fund balance – which could provide incentives for a developer – is eroding as the property sits vacant.

If that financial erosion continues, the TIF fund will run out of bond money in about five years, when the city will still have about 7 years of payments to make repaying the bonds, City Administrator Bart Olson said.

Olson presented aldermen with three options: do nothing and hope a developer builds on the site without incentives, refinance the bonds, or use TIF funds to entice a developer to build there. Refinancing the bonds also would require a dedicated revenue stream or business plan that involves a future revenue stream, Olson said.

At Thursday’s Administration Committee meeting, Ward 1 Alderman Carlo Colosimo advocated spending the next four years encouraging development in the space, while Ward 1 Alderman George Gilson Jr. encouraged his colleagues to consider refinancing the bond.