ILAPA News BURST! Bartlett Town Center

Bartlett Town Center by Jim Plonczynski, AICP

	Project Background The Bartlett Town Center Project was initiated when the Village Board created a Tax Increment Finance (TIF) District in 1986. As an identified project in the TIF Redevelopment Plan, the Village envisioned redeveloping an older industrial district in the heart of the downtown. The ten-acre Town Center site consisted of several industrial buildings, some of which were abandoned, an old auto body shop and a concrete business. The Village initiated the redevelopment plan with the purchase of the four industrial and commercial parcels starting in 1999 and began the environmental investigation of the site with help from the IEPA’s Brownfield Grant Program. Demolition of the buildings and the environmental clean up was then completed. Facts of the Case Property Purchase and Environmental Clean-up Purchasing and undertaking the environmental clean up of the four parcels that comprise the Town Center Redevelopment area was a major policy decision on the part of the Bartlett Village Board. Phase I and Phase II environmental investigations and property appraisals needed to be performed prior to the Village entering into negotiations to purchase the parcels. The four property owners were approached and discussion of the purchase of their parcels was initiated. The property owners were asked to grant access to their parcels in order for the Village’s environmental consultant, Gary Deigan of Deigan and Associates and property appraiser Pete Soderquist of Coleman Land Company to perform their investigations. After the completion of the consultants’ presentations on these property reports, the Village Board made the policy decision that the best way to proceed in redeveloping the area was to purchase the sites, clean them up and sell them to a developer. Property negotiations began with a team that consisted of the Village Administrator, Valerie Salmons, Community Development Director Jim Plonczynski, the Village Attorney, Bryan Mraz, Public Works Director Paul Kuester and Gary Deigan, Deigan and Associates. The Village’s policy in the property negotiations was to offer the fair market value for the site and did not involve the threat of condemnation. The negotiations were done in good faith with the environmental clean up of each site discussed openly. Each parcel price was set and discounted in an amount equal to the estimated environmental clean up. This money was set aside in an escrow account to cover clean up costs with the balance remaining returned to the seller if clean up was less than the escrow amount. In conjunction with the Village’s environmental investigation, the Staff attended several seminars on Brownfield Development put on by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA). Through contacts with the IEPA, the Village Staff became aware of the Brownfield Site Remediation Grant program. With the assistance of Deigan and Associates, an application for a Site Remediation grant was submitted to the IEPA. The Village received an IEPA Brownfield matching grant for $225,000.00. Deigan and Associates and RMT, the company hired to perform the clean up on the Flexweld site, worked together to meet the objectives of the Site Remediation plan. Village Staff, RMT Engineers and Deigan and Associates met with the IEPA to provide a status on the first phase of the environmental clean up. The IEPA authorized the Village to proceed with the next phase of the clean up objectives. The Village secured a letter of “No Further Remediation” from the IEPA in summer of 2006, at which time the project was set to proceed. New Metra Station/Railroad Avenue Extension The Village of Bartlett was the recipient of a $600,000 Grant from the Illinois Department of Transportation’s Operation Green Light (IDOT-OGL) program that provided for the design and construction of Railroad Avenue in the Town Center. The grant was awarded to the Village for its efforts in working with METRA to provide a transit-oriented project that would provide for a new train station, increased parking and better road access in the Town Center. Conceptual road designs were sent to METRA, and received a favorable review. The Village Board signed an Agreement with IDOT-OGL to appropriate the engineering design funds for the Railroad Avenue Extension. The Village Engineer has been authorized to proceed with the final Railroad Avenue design and also to design the interconnected traffic signal system for the railroad crossing and the intersection of the Railroad Avenue extension with Main St. Choosing a Town Center Development Team A second major policy decision that the Bartlett Village Board made was to determine a process to select a Town Center Development Team. Village Board members attended several downtown development seminars presented in the Chicago area and heard presentations from different consultant groups. The Village Board made a decision to hire a Development Advisor. Steve Friedman of S. B. Friedman and Company was hired as the Village’s Development Advisor for the Town Center project. S. B. Friedman was chosen to perform several tasks that included holding a design charette that would lead to the preparation of Town Center Concept Plans, prepare a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to send out to interested developers and to review and assist the Village in the selection of a final developer. Design Charette As a policy decision the Village Board wanted maximum citizen input on the planning for the Town Center and charged their Economic Development Commission with the task of working with S. B. Friedman and holding a design charette to solicit public input into the planning process. In preparation for the design charette, the Village’s Planning Consultant, Teska and Associates worked with the Village Staff and S. B. Friedman to develop planning tools in the form of maps and colored blocks representing various building sizes and land uses (ie. red block = 5,000 square foot commercial building, blue block = 15,000 square foot cultural arts center, yellow block = 24 unit condominium building, gray block = 200 space parking lot etc.) which would allow groups of citizens at the design charette to design a Town Center plan as they would envision the site. The Economic Development Commission (EDC) held the Town Center Design Charette and invited the Village Board and citizens at large to attend. One hundred thirty (130) participants were divided into groups of 10-12 and given the site maps and the scaled, colored planning blocks to place on the maps in an arrangement that would represent a consensus of each groups’ site plan for the Town Center. The groups that participated in the Design Charette produced 10 Town Center Site Plans. The strengths and weaknesses of each plan were discussed. S. B. Friedman then synthesized the common components of these ten (10) design charette plans into two (2) Town Center Concept Plans. These plans were presented to the EDC and approved as representative concepts for a site plan for the Town Center and inclusion in the RFQ’s. Request for Qualifications (RFQ) S. B. Friedman and the Village Staff then began work on the preparation of the RFQ to send out to interested developers. The RFQ’s included a detailed analysis of the Town Center and asked for a preliminary submittal from interested developers. The RFQ included; 1) Market assessment of the Bartlett Town Center area which provided details on the site demographics, housing market demand, retail market demand, 2) Proposed development program which included the design charette concept plans and the target quantities of retail, office and residential uses, 3) Development guidelines stating the Village’s desire to develop the Town Center as a focal point in the community with a “sense of place”, provide some urban open spaces to host an art fair or a farmer’s market, and pedestrian connectivity to the rest of the downtown. The development guidelines included the site design framework that would be required common elements to all submittals. These site design issues include: pedestrian access; open space; stormwater detention to be provided off-site to the east; Railroad Avenue to be extended across the north edge of the site; the Main St./Railroad Ave./Oak St. intersection to be signalized to ensure safe and efficient traffic flow; and a new Metra train station with parking to be located north of the Railroad Ave. extension. The development guidelines also included information on the proposed location of uses, the height and scale of the project, parking requirements, relationship to surrounding uses, acceptable exterior building materials and landscaping requirements. Developers were also given the option of preparing a Development Proposal during the RFQ process, which was to follow an outline included in the RFQ, but this was not a requirement. 4) Submission Requirements and Guidelines which required interested developers to submit a firm/team description, organizational structure and workload, project experience, references, financial information and submission requirements procedures. 5) Overview of Environmental Conditions on the Town Center Properties which detailed the Village’s environmental clean up efforts to date, provided a plat of survey with legal description, a parcel map and a topographic map showing the clean up areas. The Village sent out over 70 RFQ’s in February, 2002 to interested developers and received eleven submittals. The eleven submittals were reviewed and evaluated by S. B. Friedman and Village Staff and on May 21, 2002 the Village Board Building Committee approved the recommendation from the Staff and S. B. Friedman to invite three Development Teams to submit full formal proposals for the Town Center Project. Final Project Submittal The three development teams selected to submit formal development proposals were a) Mesirow-Stein/Harlem Irving Companies/New Frontier Companies, HKM Architects, b) Edward R. James Partners/Mid-America Asset Mgmt./Papageorge Haynes Architects and c) New England Builders/JPA Real Estate/Solomon Cordwell Buenz Architects. The formal site plan and development proposals were to be submitted by September 1, 2002. The formal submittals followed the Development proposal outline in the RFQ which included a mixed use development site plan, architectural design of building elevations and financial information on the ability to complete the project. The Village in a three-step process reviewed the development team proposals. The first step was a Project/Development Team introduction. Each Development Team was given twenty minutes to outline their proposal and introduce their team. The second step was a full public presentation in front of a joint meeting of the Village Board and the Economic Development Commission. Each Development Team presented their project in detail and were asked questions related to their proposal. These proceedings were formal public meetings with minutes kept by a court reporter. After the three formal team presentations were compiled, the Economic Development Commission met to complete their review and make a recommendation on the selection of a development team. The Economic Development Commission voted to unanimously recommend the Development Team of New England Builders (NEB)/JPA Real Estate/Solomon Cordwell Buenz (SCB) architects. The Village Board completed the final step in the review of the three Development Team proposals at their January 7, 2003 meeting. Following the recommendation of the Economic Development Commission the Village Board selected the New England Builders/JPA Real Estate/Solomon Cordwell Buenz team as the Town Center Developer. The Village Staff then negotiated with NEB/JPA/SCB on a Development Agreement. Conclusion The Village is currently taking a multi-faceted approach to realizing its goal of building the New Town Center. The project serves as the as the cornerstone of revitalizing downtown Bartlett and is becoming a destination for its residents. Five successful businesses have opened their doors including an Italian restaurant and deli, a photo studio, a wine store, and a day spa. The development's first residents enjoy the benefits of living in a great downtown that will continue to improve in coming years. Without the Village’s initiative in working together with its residents, potential developers and other government entities, the site would remain a blight in the middle of the downtown.
	Jim Plonczynski Community Development Director 228 S. Main St. Bartlett, IL 60103 Phone: 630.540.5940 Fax: 630.540.5436 JPlonczynski@vbartlett.org