Spending Money to Make Money: District 122's Take

With expected growth surrounding the new Silver Cross Hospital, the school district is exploring ways to make money off some land it has nearby. But to figure out the best way to make money, it might have to spend some first.

Whether that spending is justified was a hot issue of debate Wednesday night at the Board of Education meeting, when the board discussed the potential cost of hiring an architect group to conduct a planning strategy and analysis of the property, located off of Route 6 and Silver Cross Boulevard.

The village informed the district that there will need to be up to 600,000 square feet of medical offices or support services buildings, but there is just 328,000 square feet of medical office space planned or constructed. There are no current plans for the additional space, but district officials believe some of its land could be suited for that development.

Legat Architects would work with S.B. Friedman & Company, a real estate advisory group, to provide analysis and data for the school district to make decisions as an informed seller. The total cost of this analysis is $49,700, coming from the district's construction fund.

"What we're aiming at here is when you get an offer, you can be reactive with knowledge," Legat representative Alan Bombick said.

The work would include a site condition assessment, which would review the existing site and identify consideration that could affect future development of the site; analyze alternative use options by assessing various uses, such as mixed use and commercial development, as well as determine the market and timing for the most promising options.

A second phase would include a disposition strategy for selling the land and various meetings with the village, county and state to discuss options and review concepts. That phase would cost the district an additional $71,300, and the board would decide on that phase later into the process.

Board member Maureen Broderick expressed concerns over whether it was necessary to pay the group to do work she thought the district and the village could handle.

"We're on a very strict budget. I would really like to save this money. We might be spinning our wheels if we've got someone doing this for free and trying to make our community full."

Board member Patrick Martino said he wanted to hear more from the village and Silver Cross Hospital about their plans for the area, and he also wanted to know if there were any more competitive bids to do this work for the district. The original plan was for the board to vote on this at its Dec. 15 meeting, but because of concerns over the cost and lack of bids, the vote will be pushed into next month.

Although some board members didn't seem to think the cost is worth it, others in favor argued that having professionals to investigate the property would help the district set minimum bids and get the maximum profit for its land.

"This is our responsibility to make sure we get top dollar for it," Board President Kathy Markus said. "It's our responsibility to the community to spend more money to make more money."