The redevelopment of the long vacant Brunswick Zone building and the recently vacated Big Lots next door appears to be getting closer to fruition.
Homewood trustees approved a measure Tuesday, Nov. 28, that is intended to sustain the effort to redevelop 3043-3055 W. 183rd St., and the developer provided an update on new retail businesses that could locate there.
Dave Bossy describes progress in attracting new businesses
to the former Brunswick Zone/Big Lots site.
(Eric Crump/H-F Chronicle)
Developer David Bossy of Mid-America Development entered into a letter of intent with the village in November 2022. He told the board he is close to signing leases with three businesses that would occupy the former Brunswick Zone/Big Lots buildings.
“We’re very, very close. We’re in the 11th hour and 59th minute of finishing a lease with Ollie’s Bargain Outlet,” he said. Ollie’s is a discount chain with 510 stores in 30 states.
The 90,000 square foot space would also include Crunch Fitness and Silken, a wine and spirits store that Bossy said is comparable to Binny’s Beverage Depot.
Bossy said he is working on a deal for Starbuck’s Coffee Shop to develop a free-standing building on the property.
Mayor Rich Hofeld thanked Bossy for bringing new uses to the vacant site.
“We appreciate all you’ve done and we look forward to seeing that developed,” he said.
(Image provided by Dave Bossy, Mid-America Developers)
The measure approved by the board, an inducement resolution, was designed to keep the project’s momentum going while the village explores the possibility of creating an additional tax increment financing district at the site. The property is now part of the Kedzie Gateway TIF District established in 2021.
The equalized assessed value of the property was higher when the Kedzie Gateway TIF was created. The value has since dropped after the village acquired the site in 2022 and the EAV was reduced to zero.
TIF districts build funds to use for qualified redevelopment costs by setting aside the difference in tax revenue generated between the base EAV and the current EAV. The switch means the proposed additional TIF, the West 183rd Street TIF District, will generate more money for qualified redevelopment expenses than the Kedzie Gateway TIF will.
Village Manager Napoleon Haney described the arrangement as a sub-TIF within a TIF district.
In a memo to the board, Economic and Community Development Director Angela Mesaros noted that Bossy expects to incur costs for the rehabilitation of the building before the West 183rd Street TIF is created and the redevelopment agreement is approved. The village expects the new TIF to start in August 2024.
“The purpose of the resolution is to induce the developer to incur costs in connection with the property prior to the establishment of a TIF, and to reimburse the developer for TIF eligible expenditures once the TIF has been created,” Mesaros said in the memo.
The resolution also enables the village to incur costs and receive reimbursement once the new TIF is created.
Brunswick Zone bowling alley was permanently closed in January 2015. The Big Lots store moved to Country Club Hills in May 2022.
