Brookfield officials are looking into establishing a new tax-increment finance district near Ogden Avenue and the Congress Park area to encourage private development at village-owned properties.
Brookfield already has one TIF district along Ogden Avenue from Eberly Avenue to Custer Avenue and another near Congress Park, but village officials said their impending expirations — in 2031 and 2034, respectively — make them less valuable for developers.
“As a rule of thumb, from a financial perspective, most developers are looking for TIF monies that are within a 10-year range, so anything less doesn’t make it as palatable for developers, and it makes it difficult for our redevelopment agreements,” said Libby Popovic, Brookfield’s community development director. “From a very practical perspective, in terms of moving a development along in a project, we need TIFs that are not expiring.”
When a municipality creates a TIF district, the property value within the district is frozen. For the duration of the term of the TIF, property taxes are paid as normal and distributed to taxing bodies based on the frozen value. Any growth in the tax revenue goes into a special fund that the municipality can use to reinvest into the district, including offering incentives to possible developers.
While a TIF’s maximum lifespan of 23 years can be extended by up to 12 more years, doing so requires approval from the state legislature. Instead, the village can create a new TIF district to reset the 23-year countdown, said Doug Cooper, Brookfield’s finance director.
“We wanted to determine the best way to extend the life of these TIFs in order to make a development agreement more plausible or feasible with the developer. We knew we had to extend it,” he said. “We, of course, discussed going to the state and passing legislation to extend it for the next 12 years, but we determined that might be a little bit more lengthy and involved than we want to do because we’re trying for a quicker turnaround.”
In conversation with SB Friedman Development Advisors, Brookfield’s contracted TIF consulting firm since 2023, village officials realized it could be faster to move the village-owned parcels intended for redevelopment from the two expiring districts into a new TIF area, meaning the village will earn TIF funds on them through the 2040s.
Those parcels include three near Congress Park that Brookfield purchased earlier this year, creating a larger combined area of village-owned land, Popovic said. She said the removal of those parcels from the existing TIF districts “shouldn’t affect them at all.”
“The Congress Park TIF itself is a zero-base right now, so it’s not generating any revenue whatsoever. Once we get development in there, hopefully under the new TIF area, we’ll be able to develop that parcel, and then we’ll start realizing the incremental value,” Cooper said. “The other TIF parcels that we might be considering are such a small amount within that Ogden Avenue TIF that — this goes without the study — they might not be generating a whole lot of revenue in that area anyway.”
Village trustees on July 28 approved a resolution to contract with SB Friedman for consulting services on creating the new TIF district, including a study of the area and a public deliberation process. According to a village memo, the total cost for the project is about $35,000.
Geoff Dickinson, a partner at SB Friedman, told trustees the new district could be created within six months of the firm starting work, based on Brookfield’s direction.
“There’s a three-month notice of approval process that’s statutorily defined. Usually, it takes us three months to do our work and three months for the process. It can go slower than that, but we can’t usually go much faster,” he said.
Popovic emphasized the diligence of Brookfield’s staff in deciding to pursue this new TIF district.
“This is part of an overall, long-term strategy for economic development for Brookfield as a whole,” she said. “This has been in the works and something that we’ve talked about and looked into, and now we’re fully evaluating it from all angles.”
