The Wilmette Park District will not try to get the keys to the Sheridan Shores Yacht Club building, park board members decided at a special board meeting on Monday.
Despite several commissioners acknowledging that the building at 20 Marine Drive could be useful, all but two – board President John Olvany and Bryan Abbott – voted against putting in a bid for no more than $50,000 a year to the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, which owns the building at Wilmette Harbor.
Even that bid was low; the MWRD is asking for a minimum bid of $138,000 annually for 36 years, according to Park District Executive Director Steve Wilson. Olvany, who made the motion, specifically noted that the low figure was “due to the current state of the building, lack of clear language in bid documents regarding both existing easements and the responsibility for real estate property taxes.”
Nonetheless, he urged the board to approve the motion, calling potential control of the building a unique opportunity for the district.
“This piece of property is right at the entrance to Gillson Park. It’s the first building one will see as one goes into the park’s south entrance and from my perspective this is one of the rare opportunities that the district gets in order to broaden its facilities for residents and other patrons,” Olvany said.
Currently the building is operated by the yacht club, which has been in charge of it via lease or permit since 1937, according to MWRD spokeswoman Allison Fore. It also houses the Wilmette Harbor Association, which maintains the tiny harbor, and a sailing school. The club’s current lease expires on March 6, Fore said.
Olvany said having access to Lake Michigan “without needing private membership” was “precious,” and pointed out that the district already leases some of Gillson Park’s acreage from the MWRD.
Abbott said putting a bid in at least allows the district to be party to the MWRD decision process: “If we’re not part of the bid process, we’re not part of the discussion.”
But he acknowledged that the building, which he inspected during a Jan. 13 walk-through for potential bidders, needed considerable improvements.
Board members agreed that the building could have been a useful addition to the district, but some decried the short time they had to make a decision. The MWRD opened bidding only on Jan. 6, with a Jan. 26 deadline for filing any offers.
“I suspect the MWRD already has somebody they’ve targeted as the organization that they want to have in there. Otherwise it would make sense to have a longer bid period,” Commissioner Ryrie Pellaton said, before pointing out that the yacht club might not get the bid even if the park district abstains from bidding.
Commissioners Shelley Shelly and Stephanie Foster said they couldn’t justify spending what district administrators estimated would be roughly $1 million in necessary improvements on a property the district would lease but not own.
“There is no parking (on the property), the water is not part of the lease, we’ll never own the building,” Shelly said. “The cost analysis for the building isn’t favorable at all and the ideas for use of it were not clear.”
“This is for lease and not for sale, and that’s a whole different thing,” Foster agreed.
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The Monday meeting drew a full room of spectators, a dozen of whom spoke. Most of them either told the board not to bid on the property or asked commissioners if they could work with the building’s existing tenants.
“There’s a real historic component to this,” said yacht club member and Wilmette resident Joe Shipley. “If you do make a bid and win it, I hope you’ll respect that history.”
Fellow club member and Wilmette resident Chris Wright said he didn’t think it was prudent to bid on the property, not only because of the predicted renovation costs but because of the low amount that district administrators project they could earn from the building use.
In his report to the board, Wilson said staff had estimated the district could generate about $71,000 in net revenue from the building, through kayak and stand-up paddle rentals as well as room rentals or potential restaurant use.
Wilmette resident Nancy Prial said the park district has many other lakefront needs: “My concern is by taking on another property it will dilute the park district’s other goals.”
This is the second time the park district has eyed the yacht club building. In October, 2013, the board agreed to at least preliminarily approach the MWRD about leasing it. In June of 2014 the MWRD ended negotiations, saying it had decided to go to a public bidding process in 2016.
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