The Chicago Bears have filed a property tax appeal for the former Arlington International Racecourse, seeking a refund of $7.2 million from local taxing bodies, an attorney for local schools said Wednesday.
The team filed the request with the Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board, or PTAB, for the site where the Bears had proposed building a $2 billion enclosed stadium. The Cook County Board of Review set its valuation of the property at $125 million.
Team officials recently pivoted to focus instead on a new proposal to build a stadium on the lakefront to replace Soldier Field.
But the team still owns the site in Arlington Heights, which it bought last year for $197 million. To reduce the tax bill, the organization razed the grandstand and other buildings, and is continuing to fight over how much taxes it has to pay.
At a meeting of Community Consolidated School District 15 in Palatine, schools attorney Ares Dalianis updated the board on stalled negotiations with the team.
If the suburban stadium were to be built with a proposed surrounding mixed-use development of housing, retail and entertainment, school officials estimated it could generate 350 to 400 new students at local schools.
At a cost of $1.5 million for a classroom of 24 students, that could work out to $22 million, a school official estimated. If the district needs to build a new school, that could cost $50 million to $75 million.
“Its a big challenge for us if we have 350 or 400 kids,” Supt. Laurie Heinz said, adding, “It’s staggering. … This is critical for District 15 that this is done right.”
Because the Bears proposal was preliminary, team officials never specified how many homes might be built in the development, so school officials based their estimates of students on rough concept drawings. The team declined comment, but team President Kevin Warren previously called the schools’ proposal a “non-starter.”
The village of Arlington Heights’ proposed memorandum of understanding with the Bears would call for the schools’ costs to be covered, and would prohibit single-family homes and limit the number of residences.
High School District 214, based in Arlington Heights, and Township High School District 211, headquartered in Palatine, also receive property taxes from the Arlington site, and were are also part of the negotiations.
Dalianis said the schools tried to meet the Bears’ goals in property tax negotiations.
“We really tried to reach an agreement,” Dalianis said. “We offered them what they said they wanted, which is long-term property tax certainty and essentially $5 million (in taxes) a year, and those offers were not accepted. So we’re frustrated.”
If the team were to get a proposed Tax Increment Financing district or a PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) agreement for the site, it could freeze the property taxes paid to the schools at current levels for 23 to 35 years.
The team shifted focus to Chicago after Warren and Mayor Brandon Johnson assumed their new jobs, Dalianis noted.
Arlington Heights officials recently proposed a compromise property tax between what each side was seeking, but it was too late, the attorney said.
“To think that basically $2 million in property taxes is holding it up, it’s a fantasy, it’s completely inaccurate and it’s a misconception,” Dalianis added. “So it’s not the property tax issue. They just are exploding this other option. …— We just have to wait and see, I think.”