Homewood officials plan a tax increment financing district in the village’s downtown near the Metra Electric Line station.
Properties that would be part of the TIF include a village-owned office building and Village Hall, including a parking lot the village sees as being developed for apartments.
A public hearing on the proposed TIF is scheduled for 7 p.m. on March 11 at Village Hall, 2020 Chestnut Road.
The Village Board approved an ordinance Tuesday scheduling a joint review board for the new Harwood TOD TIF and the public hearing. A joint review board includes representatives of other taxing bodies with a TIF District, including school, park and library districts, and the county.
The village proposes about 30 properties in another downtown TIF district be removed and incorporated into the new Harwood TIF.
The boundaries of the new TIF would be the Dixie Highway viaduct on the north, Ridge Road on the south, Dixie on the east and Harwood Avenue on the west.
TOD, or transit oriented development, has been part of a trend in suburbs along Metra commuter lines, with housing such as apartments and retail clustered near train stations.
South and southwest suburbs including Oak Forest, Orland Park and Tinley Park have encouraged transit oriented projects near Metra stops.
Homewood’s downtown transit oriented master plan, adopted last year, proposes more apartments near the recently rebuilt Metra station, at Ridge Road and Harwood Avenue.
The plan estimates another 110 to 150 apartments could be built.
Under a TIF, incremental increases in property tax revenue can be used for things such as offering financial incentives to developers and paying for public improvements.
The Village Hall, police station and fire station would be part of the Harwood TIF.
The village, in July 2023, approved a letter of intent with HCF Homewood to build apartments in the Village Hall parking lot, between Elm and Chestnut roads on the east side of Harwood.
The village’s downtown development plan sees the possibility of 50 apartment units in a four-story building on the site, which it sold to HCF last year for $1.
HCF is the builder of The Hartford, a mixed-use, 36-unit apartment building that opened in September 2023 at 2033 Ridge Road, east of the Metra station.
The $9.2 million project includes a mix of studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments.
Stoney Point Grill in Mokena opened a second location in a 5,800-square-foot space on the first floor of the building.
Homewood bought the site, the former Triumph building, in May 2018 for $660,000, and sold it to HCF for $1 in May 2019.
In spring 2022, Homewood agreed to pay $500,000 for an office building at the northeast corner of Ridge and Harwood that would be part of the new TIF district.
At just under a half-acre, the Ridge/Harwood site includes a two-story office building of about 12,000 square feet, according to the village.
It’s across the street from the Metra station, and the village sees the possibility of a small grocery store opening on the ground floor of a building that could include 30 apartments, according to the downtown master plan.
TIF money could be used to demolish the existing building.
Homewood’s former library, 17900 Dixie Highway, which the village bought in 2002 for $655,000, would also be part of the TIF.
Water tower in downtown Homewood. (Daily Southtown staff)
Officials plan that property, immediately east of the Dixie Highway viaduct, to be the site of a new municipal water storage tank.
It would replace a decades-old elevated water tank next to Village Hall the village estimates is near the end of its useful life.
The existing tank has a storage capacity of 250,000 gallons, and the new one would be able to hold about 750,000 gallons of water, according to plans.
mnolan@southtownstar.com
