Approval for a radio advertising campaign touting Brookfield to real estate developers appears to be but a formality after village trustees essentially consented to the plan during a committee of the whole meeting on July 22.
The village board will take an official vote on the plan at their next meeting on Aug. 26, and radio ads could be on the air as soon as that week, according to Assistant Village Manager Keith Sbiral, who is spearheading the economic development effort for Brookfield.
“After the vote happens, we’ll sign the contract and move forward,” said Sbiral, who said ads will likely run between late August and early October on WBBM-AM and WXRT-FM.
The ads are part of a larger economic development campaign that will kick off in early to mid-October with an event showcasing the village and its commercial opportunities for real estate developers.
Sbiral said Brookfield is likely to also run some print ads in Crain’s Chicago Business in advance of the developer event.
The Brookfield village board is expected to approve spending between $20,000 and $30,000 of TIF funds to pay for the radio ad campaign. Sbiral characterized the expense as “modest” compared to the advertising campaigns other suburban municipalities have undertaken in recent years. Those campaigns can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars, he said.
Sbiral said the October event geared toward developers will include a presentation from village officials, a question-and-answer period and a tour of the village’s key areas for development.
“If we can show them how Brookfield is easy to work with, if we can show them Brookfield has committed to development and sustainable economic development, then we can show them that this is a place where they won’t have a high volume of risk,” said Sbiral. “That’s the community we’re looking for; that’s the message we’re trying to send out there.”
