Lyons Township High School’s administration revealed on March 20 that the school board had rejected a $60.5 million offer for the undeveloped land it owns in Willow Springs.
The offer was made to LTHS on Feb. 17 by Prologis, a company that builds warehouses and distribution centers, in a letter to District 204’s business manager, Brian Stachacz, dated Feb. 17.
The offer came a little more than three weeks after the LTHS school board voted 6-0 on Jan. 23 to reject bids of $55 million by industrial developer Industrial Bridge and a $46.5 million offer from Prologis that were submitted in January. The second, higher offer from Prologis had not been disclosed previously.
According to a press release issued on the afternoon of March 20 in advance of that night’s school board meeting, the District 204 Board of Education, through its attorney, opened a dialogue with Prologis after receiving its second bid, which exceeded the minimum price of $55 million that the board had set in January.
“Ultimately, the terms and conditions, presented by ProLogis were not consistent with those of the Board,” the press release stated.
School board president Kari Dillon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
District 204 Superintendent Brian Waterman in an email offered a little more detail about the proposal, saying Prologis expressed a desire to bring in an addition partner and proposed a different timeline.
“Those two items just weren’t consistent with the board’s terms and conditions,” said LTHS Superintendent Brian Waterman.
The LTHS school board has been criticized since January for trying to sell the wooded approximately 70-acre tract of land it has owned for more than half a century by those living near the land and who send their children to an elementary school next the land.
The parcel is currently zoned for single-family housing, retail or senior housing and the village of Willow Springs made clear in January that it would not change the zoning.
On March 10, the LTHS Board of Education publicly announced that the Willow Springs land had been taken off the market.
