The Orland Park Village Board voted Monday to hire a consulting firm to check spending as Mayor Jim Dodge’s administration plans to move forward with a downtown development project.
Dodge said after the village in 2024 established the tax increment financing district focused on what is generally referred to as the Main Street Triangle, northwest of LaGrange Road and 143rd Street, a different consulting firm was hired to look over the developer’s estimates for TIF reimbursement.
Hiring a new consultant, the Chicago based Concord Group, is an early stage of Dodge’s own plan for the downtown triangle coming to fruition. He wouldn’t explain his vision for the development Monday but said more will be announced in about two weeks.
“You’ve got to have your lawyers, you’ve got to have your finance consultants and then with something like this, because it’s public money, I also wanted deep expertise in construction costs,” Dodge said. “My real objective was to make sure we had the proper expertise on our side of the table, so that when the bills started coming in, we agreed the bills were legitimate.”
The village owns seven properties spread over 9 acres and has worked for several years with an Orland Park-based firm Edwards Realty, which was originally proposing more than 140,000 square feet of commercial and office space and a larger park in the center of the site. The first tenant, a Weber Grill restaurant, is expected to open at the southwest corner of LaGrange and 142nd Street later this year.
Dodge said attorneys found the village’s former plan for securing the estimated $33 million of funding required for the development to be high risk, and his administration has been working to develop an alternative proposal.
“It was all general obligation debt that the village would have to take on,” Dodge said. “We set about trying to basically work this out so there was less risk to the village with a higher probability of being successful.”
He said his administration has also worked with Edwards Realty “to think about all the plans, think about the timing, think about what was going to go there.”
The estimated base fee for the Concord Group’s consulting work is $41,500, with additional fees for construction cost estimating to be determined, according to the service proposal.
“I’m all for this,” Orland Park board member John Lawler said Monday. “It’s a little bit of money, but it’s just to make sure we’re not paying more than we should.
The board also agreed to lease about 2 acres to Norfolk Southern Railway Company to eventually build a park and create extra parking near the planned downtown area. A proposed roadway would connect 144th Street to Beacon Avenue in a northwest diagonal direction.
The village has leased a 0.4 acre portion, which borders and runs parallel to a portion of railroad, for $6,708 per year since 1981, according to Village Manager George Koczwara.
“It was meant to be for commuter parking, if it ever got to that point,” Koczwara said.
He said parking isn’t needed for the commercial district, but the village is going to maintain the land and “see how things play out.”
“We just want to make sure that while we have this opportunity that it’s available to us, in case we need it for any of the things that need to happen wherever we end up heading.” said Steve Marciani, director of Development Services.
Norfolk Southern Railway began leasing the entire 2-acre parcel starting Friday for $15,000 per year, according to the lease agreement. The lease outlines the purpose to establish a park and states Norfolk Southern must have written consent from the village to make changes to the property.
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