Brookfield is expanding its sights for development along Grand Boulevard.
After the village purchased the historic Theater Building at 3723 Grand Blvd. in September, Brookfield trustees approved a purchase contract on Nov. 25 for two land-adjacent parcels located at 3717 Grand Blvd for $395,000. Now, village officials are looking for someone who can develop all three parcels to add to Brookfield’s central business district.
Village Manager Tim Wiberg explained that the owner of the two parcels — one a two-family home and the other a side lot with grass — sought to sell them to Brookfield after the village bought the Theater Building.
“I think the publicity of that and the public exposure to that transaction raised the attention of the property owner to the immediate west,” he said at the meeting. “That owner approached the village, wondering if the village would be interested in purchasing that property, both those parcels. In conversations with the village board and with the owner, it did seem to make sense to have an opportunity to perhaps assemble all three of these parcels into one development parcel and really reshape underperforming parcels right now in the middle of downtown Brookfield.”
While Brookfield won’t close on the two parcels until January, Community Development Director Libby Popovic confirmed to the Landmark that the village plans to fund the acquisition through its tax increment financing (TIF) district along Grand Boulevard and the rest of downtown.
TIF districts are a tool in Illinois for municipalities to finance economic development. Essentially, when a TIF district is created, the overall property value of the area is taken as the district’s “base” value. Each property owner within the district still pays property taxes like normal, but taxing bodies, like school districts and municipalities, only receive revenue according to the “base” value of a property. As properties improve over time and grow in value, the owners pay additional taxes each year; the amount paid over the “base” value is stored in a special fund that can only be used to further invest in the TIF district. That reinvestment can take many shapes, including the purchase of property for redevelopment.
Popovic said Brookfield is open to the combined parcels being redeveloped as one building or multiple smaller ones, but it must all be done by a single developer or group.
“We want the entire 100 linear feet developed,” she said.
The village is now deciding what to include in its request for proposals (RFP) for the combined properties, which will outline what it wants potential developers to submit for consideration. While the village board began discussing the RFP at its Dec. 9 committee of the whole meeting, two trustees were absent, so the board agreed to push final decisions to its next committee of the whole meeting in January.
“We’re finalizing what the proposal process is going to be just to make it fair and transparent and open for everyone,” Popovic told the Landmark. She said no one who had previously expressed interest in developing the Theater Building had been rejected now that the plan for the site is changing.
“We’ll be reaching out to other developers within the village to say, take a look at this on our website,” she added. “This [site] is pretty robust. It’s certainly one of the bigger developments that we have here in Brookfield.”
