Bensenville village officials are preparing what they are calling a $43 million economic development program that would include building a hotel and golf course, a $14 million food store and a new village hall.
It also would involve moving a telecommunications research and development company to the village.
“It’s really a great feeling that we’re seeing all these improvements happening,” said Bensenville Village President John Geils, who faces a contested re-election in April. “It’s a win-win situation for all of us.”
Geils said the development will “be accomplished without a single cent of new taxes,” create “hundreds of new jobs” and increase gross sales in Bensenville “by more than $15 million annually.”
The program, called “Bensenville 2001: Building A Future Together,” includes several projects that have been in the works for years, including a cargo center near O’Hare Airport and housing developments.
Many details, including approval of tax increment financing districts and providing water and sewer service, remain to be worked out. Nevertheless, the amount of development included in the program is noteworthy for a community that Geils said “mistakenly has been taken for granted by some as the poor sister among the suburbs surrounding O’Hare Airport.”
Geils said the village over the years has “set the table” for the upcoming development in rebuilding the town center, constructing streets and storm detention facilities and building the estimated $25 million Redmond Recreational Complex, among other efforts.
“We’ve worked very hard in the last 16 years to develop a new image,” Geils said.
The largest development is Dominick’s Food Stores’ $14 million investment to transform its store at the Brentwood Commons shopping center at York Road and Grand Avenue.
The company plans to convert the structure into a Dominick’s Fresh Store, a “European-style market” that has carryout food, specialty bakeries, delis, floral shops, a cafe, in-store dining and banking.
The expansion would create 20 to 40 jobs in the area, according to documents supplied by the village.
In addition to the new Dominick’s store, Geils said the village is in preliminary talks with owners of Brentwood Commons to undertake a redesign of the entire center.
Farther north and west, United States Cellular Corp., based in Chicago, is planning to convert buildings on Illinois Highway 83 near Thorndale Avenue to house the engineering research and development group for the company.
The project cost is estimated at $3 million. U.S. Cellular will provide $2 million. The landlord will spend $1 million, said Gregory Hummel, legal counsel for U.S. Cellular.
The company is expected to bring about 150 jobs to the site, Hummel said.
U.S. Cellular, which had outgrown its Chicago headquarters, chose the Illinois 83 site because of the fiber optic lines that run along the road and Bensenville’s proximity to O’Hare, Hummel said.
The Dominick’s and the U.S. Cellular projects are contingent on village approval of tax increment financing districts, a development tool in which local governments can use increased property tax revenue from improved businesses in a district to fund major infrastructure within the district’s boundaries.
Plans also are moving forward for a $6 million Country Inn Suites hotel on 7 acres in the far southeast corner of the village, at Grand Avenue and County Line Road, on the site of the former Sexton landfill.
The three-story, 98-room hotel would be next to a 55-acre, 9-hole public golf course.
The hotel is expected to create 25 new jobs. The golf course would employ about 30 part-time employees.
Engineers presented the plan to village trustees in late December.
By late fall or early spring of next year, Osco Drug will begin construction on a $3.5 million store on the site of Bensenville Village Hall, Geils said.
He said village officials are planning to move Bensenville’s municipal offices to the center of town. Revenue from the estimated $1 million sale of the village hall’s current site is expected to cover construction of the new village hall, Geils said.
