Lyons Township High School District 204 has received another offer to buy the large tract of undeveloped land it owns in Willow Springs, but the offer — technically two offers — is for about 33% of what LTHS was offered for the land last year by other interested parties.
The large, publicly traded home building company Pulte Homes has offered to buy the 72.81-acre tract for either $20.85 million or $18.8 million, depending on how it develops the property. Last year, LTHS received offers of $55 million and $60.5 million from an industrial developer, and later, a distribution center developer, but those deals fell apart in the face of vociferous opposition from the Village of Willow Springs and those who live near the property. The land is zoned only for single family housing, senior living and retail uses.
Pulte sent two offers, technically letters of intent to purchase, to LTHS Jan. 12. Pulte offered $18.8 million for a plan to build 97 age-restricted ranch homes and 96 age-restricted-townhomes on the land which is located just west of Willow Springs Road between 79th Street and German Church Road. Pulte offered $20.85 million for a plan to build 163 single family homes on the site that LTHS has owned for more than 60 years.
LTHS announced the offers in an email sent out Jan. 18. Supt. Brian Waterman said that the LTHS Board of Education will discuss the offer from Pulte at its Jan. 22 meeting. LTHS also released a letter that school board president Dawn Aubert sent to Pulte on Jan. 16. In the letter, Aubert noted that LTHS is not legally allowed to sell the property directly to a private party without going through a bidding process that conforms to the Illinois school code.
“Please note that it is not legally permissible for the Board of Education to sell its real estate directly to a private party,” Aubert wrote in her letter to Pulte. “Rather, the Illinois School Code requires school property to be sold at a public sale in accordance with the provisions of Section 5-22 of the Illinois School Code (105 ILCS 5/5-22).”
Aubert also noted that the offer from Pulte was unsolicited.
Pulte, which is based in Atlanta, is the third-largest home builder in the United States and has built many homes in the Chicago area.
“In the past three years, Pulte has closed on more significant residential development properties than any other builder in the Chicago area,” Pulte Illinois land acquisition manager Fabian Fondriest wrote in his Jan. 12 email to LTHS.
A little more than a year ago, the LTHS school board set a minimum price for the property of $55 million after announcing its interest in selling the land that it has owned for more than 60 years. That came after industrial developer Bridge Industrial had contacted LTHS early in 2023 about purchasing the property. Bridge bid $55 million for the property one year ago with the intent to build some sort of industrial park. But that offer fell apart amid intense opposition and outrage from those who live near the land in Willow Springs and from those who send their children to the elementary school just west of the property. The Village of Willow Springs also made clear that it would not change its zoning to allow industrial development, a stance it reiterated last month.
After the Bridge offer fell through, Prologis, a developer of distribution centers and warehouses offered $60.5 million, but that offer also fell apart and the LTHS board rejected that offer amid the community opposition that drew large, sometimes angry crowds to LTHS school board meetings last winter.
At the time, some of those opposed to industrial development said that they were not opposed to all development on the site and recognized that LTHS had to right to sell the land, but wanted LTHS to only sell to buyers with plans that would conform to the existing zoning.