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player ready...The Niles Park District has begun work on a new multimillion dollar 70,000-square-foot athletic facility on Caldwell Avenue and will soon embark on an extensive renovation of the Tam O’Shanter Golf Course, according to district officials.
Joe LoVerde, the soon-to-retire executive director of the district, said construction of the new facility, located at 7847 Caldwell Avenue, is expected to cost $11 million. The building will include a 100-foot by 200-foot indoor soccer field, two basketball courts, a dance studio and several other rooms to be used for various events, he said.
LoVerde said the district has begun demolition on the building that will ultimately house the new facility. He said the district purchased the building, which once served as an indoor tennis club, storage facility and then vacant space, for about $650,000. The current building’s ceiling and floor will remain, but the remainder of it will be torn down to make way for the new athletic facility, he said. Bidding on the next phase of the project will begin next month, LoVerde said, with an expected completion date in July 2017.
The project will be funded through bonds, he said. The bonds will be paid back via property tax revenue and operational income, according to LoVerde.
“We estimate that the program revenue generated from this building will adequately pay the debt service on the funds borrowed,” he said.
LoVerde said park district officials believe the new indoor soccer stadium and the basketball courts will be heavily used. He said the district runs one of the largest youth basketball programs in the state and they’ve relied on area schools for use of their basketball courts.
“The addition of the two gyms will give us relief if the schools need to use their own gym space,” he said.
Work on the district’s Tam O’Shanter Golf Course will involve new drainage infrastructure to tackle chronic flooding at the course and an aesthetic overhaul that will highlight the facility’s history, LoVerde said. He said the district does not want to close the course at any time, ensuring golf revenue continues to flow through to the district.
“We have a tremendous amount of leagues that play here,” he said.
The first phase of the project, which is estimated to cost $1.5 million, is expected to begin this fall and winter and will tackle the flooding issue, LoVerde said. The course will reopen next spring and shutter once again next fall for the second phase of the renovation project, which will include the installation of historically accurate tee boxes and construction of foot bridges that once spanned the north branch of the Chicago River that flows through the course. The project will be funded via operational revenue from the golf course, he said.
LoVerde said the course, which was previously owned by George May, has existed since the 1930s. A small museum will be constructed adjacent to the renovated course to showcase historical memorabilia donated to the district by the May family, he said. Under May’s ownership, the course was the site of the first televised golf tournament in America and played host to a number of esteemed golf tournaments including several World Championships and PGA Tours in the mid-twentieth century.
“We want to put in signage to indicate the players who played and what happened here and the history. It’s a renovation and a history project altogether,” LoVerde said.
Though LoVerde is slated to retire after nearly 20 years in the job in early September, he will serve as a consultant to the district overseeing both the construction of the new athletic facility on Caldwell and the golf course renovation project. The project is expected to be completed in 2018, he said.
Tom Elenz, current finance director for the district and soon-to-be executive director once LoVerde leaves, said the district will pay the outgoing director $78,000 as a consultant annually until both projects are complete.
Lee V. Gaines is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.