Tinley Park-Park District officials marked the official transfer Monday of 280-acres of property previously owned by the state which the district plans to redevelop for recreational uses.
“It is truly a historic day for our community,” Park Board member Lisa O’Donovan said, standing outside some of the shuttered buildings of the vacant Tinley Park Mental Health Center.
The state, under legislation signed last August by Gov. J. B. Pritzker, sold the property to the district for $1.
Northwest of Harlem Avenue and 183rd Street, the property encompasses the shuttered mental health hospital and adjacent Howe Developmental Center. The Park District initially plans to redevelop 90 acres of the Howe center. The hospital closed in 2012.
The district has also received an initial commitment on $15 million in state funds that will be used to demolish buildings and clear the property of environmental issues including asbestos and mold.
“The first priority is the environmental cleanup of the site,” O’Donovan said. “We are committed to properly remediating this site.”
She chairs a district committee, Remediate 280, that includes village residents and will be involved in the cleanup and eventual redevelopment of the property.
The district is working with the firm Tetra Tech, which updated a study it did for Tinley Park in 2014. At the time, the company estimated the cost to clean up any contamination and demolish structures, which number more than 45, on the property at $12.4 million.
The Park District received deed to the property Friday, and an initial payment of $5.1 million for site remediation, according to state Rep. Bob Rita, D-Blue Island. The Park District would draw on an account as work on the property proceeds, and additional portions of the grant money would be given during later phases of the redevelopment, he said.
Rita and state Sen. Michael Hastings, D-Frankfort, worked to advance legislation in the General Assembly for the land transfer.
The Park District envisions an initial phase that includes five baseball fields, six multipurpose athletic fields, a domed soccer field, stadium with running track, accessible playground and a pond. It would be on part of the Howe property at the west end of the site, directly east of the Park District’s Freedom Park and Veterans Parkway.
Because it was mainly residential, the district said it is possibly among the cleanest pieces of land on the site, as far as remediation costs.
Large underground tanks that had held fuel are being removed, and the next step after that would be to advertise for bids on remediation inside the buildings and demolition, O’Donovan said.
Asbestos, mold and other hazards would be removed before buildings are demolished, she said.
Hastings said the hope is that all of the work will come in under the $15 million grant total, freeing up some money for redevelopment.
Renee Cipriano, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency director from 2001-05, was hired by the Park District to guide it through the remediation process.
Cipriano said the Park District would enter the IEPA’s voluntary remediation program, where the agency would oversee cleanup work.
The goal is to get a letter from the IEPA saying that cleanup efforts have been sufficient, and no further remediation is needed.
The district would not necessarily need a clean bill of health for the entire site in order to move ahead with redevelopment, and could get partial approval from the state to proceed on a portion of the site, according to the district.
The district will explore public-private development opportunities that could generate property tax revenue as well as sales tax revenue for the village, she said.
The property was once considered a site for a combination harness racing track and casino under Illinois’ expansion of gambling, but language in the legislation Pritzker signed prevents the property from being used for gambling.
The village of Tinley Park also eyed acquiring the property from the state, with ideas to redevelop it for commercial uses.
In 2015, Tinley Park planned to pay the state its asking price of $4.16 million for the property, but backed away from the purchase. In May 2019, the state offered to sell it to the village for $4.5 million, and the village indicated it was agreeable but negotiations did not proceed.
