The developer of a large warehouse distribution project in Country Club Hills is eyeing a similar project in neighboring Oak Forest.
A proposed logistics oriented development by Chicago-based Logistics Property Co. would encompass a 44-acre site bounded by 167th Street on the north, Interstate 57 on the east and south, and Cicero Avenue on the west, according to documents.
The company is developing the LogiPark 57-80 just to the east, with 1.4 million square feet of warehouse distribution space on land in Country Club Hills where plans for an outlet mall had languished for more than a decade before being dropped.
The Oak Forest development would have the company purchase land from the city for $359,000, as well as privately owned parcels, according to documents.
It was not clear from plans how large the development, as far as square footage of buildings, would be. Plans show two buildings with entrances to the property off 167th and at Cicero.
The company has been working with Oak Forest officials since last summer, designating Logistics Property as the preferred developer and the city-owned land representing a small portion of the overall site, documents show.
Like the Country Club Hills development, the Oak Forest project is in Cook County, and Oak Forest officials are looking at a tax increment financing district that could help offset the property tax disadvantage compared with nearby Will County.
The city plans to hire the Chicago financial advisory firm Kane, McKenna & Associates to study establishing a TIF. The firm has worked with many other south and southwest suburban communities on TIF districts and municipal bond sales.
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In a TIF district, a baseline is set of property tax revenues, with taxing bodies receiving the tax revenues established once the TIF is enacted, with incremental increases in property tax revenue as a result of development funneled into a separate TIF fund.
Apart from the municipality, other taxing bodies, such as school districts, need to sign off on creating the TIF, with the idea being that once the TIF expires — the normal life span is 23 years although it can be shortened or extended — higher tax revenues will be realized by the taxing bodies.
In the near term, those incremental increases in tax revenue resulting from development within the district, held in reserve, can be used to reimburse developers for costs such as property acquisition, demolition of properties and public improvements such as streets and utilities.
Both the Country Club Hills development and the proposed Oak Forest project are just north of the interchange of Interstates 80 and 57.
The Country Club Hills site is more than twice the size of the planned Oak Forest development, at 102 acres. It is in a TIF district that was established when the outlet mall was initially planned.
The site is southwest of a shopping center anchored by Walmart on 167th and Marcus’ Country Club Hills Cinema.
While so much of development has been concentrated in lower-tax sites in Will County, that has been changing in recent years, although Cook County municipalities have had to induce that development.
For example, Amazon is close to opening massive fulfillment centers in Markham and Matteson, both in Cook County, but incentives were provided to offset the property tax disadvantage. Tinley Park officials recently supported a tax break, through Cook County, for a logistics development that would be north of Amazon’s Matteson facility.
The Tinley Park project, on 111 acres northeast of Harlem Avenue and Vollmer Road, is proposed to have up to 1.3 million square feet of industrial space for warehousing and distribution.
LogiPark 57-80 occupies what had originally been proposed in 2007 as the site of an outlet mall, with 400,000 to 500,000 square feet of retail space. A large electronic billboard advertising Chicagoland Outlets still stands on the north side of I-80 east of the interchange with I-57.