Was All This Presented In The Loyola TIF?

The State of Illinois was a feature in Urban Land Institute's April edition. Out of all of the projects that were featured - Evanston and their new rapid transit commercial and residential development - and Rogers Park for the TIF on Sheridan Road. Has anyone in Rogers Park heard ALL of the Loyola Plan? Have any additional information? Did the TIF meetings cover the development?

How a TIF Transformed a Neighborhood

How does one jump-start development in a transitional neighborhood where about 70 percent of the housing stock is rental and where there is not a lot of land available for redevelopment? By using tax increment financing (TIF), among other strategies, says Mike Haney, president of Newcastle Limited, a national commercial real estate advisory firm specializing in providing nonprofit organizations with real estate advisory, development, and investment services.

Loyola University turned to Chicago-based Newcastle Limited to create a strategy for obtaining public financial support for redevelopment and to promote economic development and enhance the student experience in the adjacent neighborhood of Rogers Park, home to Loyola’s 50-acre lakefront campus. “The result is an economic development tool that will make Loyola University’s campus and surrounding area more vibrant and attractive to students, faculty, and neighbors,” says Haney.

Over the past 20 years, the diverse Rogers Park neighborhood has undergone demographic and economic changes resulting in a lack of private investment, inadequate utilities, deteriorated infrastructure, and reduced property values. Rogers Park lacked larger land parcels for development and, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, the median family income was about $34,728. Newcastle worked with Loyola to master plan 5.4 acres of underused land adjacent to the campus, oversaw the creation of a 70-acre TIF district, established a framework for garnering community support, and led negotiations with the city of Chicago for economic incentives to help fund the plan.

The firm also conducted a sealed-bid offering of a 32,000-square-foot development site, the first of five phases for the planned redevelopment. Newcastle also helped Loyola use real estate to recapitalize the university by identifying surplus properties that did not add to its core mission. But instead of selling these properties, Newcastle recommended leasing them to enhance the student experience and improve the community while allowing Loyola to retain control of the property for future use.

Newcastle negotiated a redevelopment agreement with the city granting Loyola $46 million toward the $85 million preservation of a national historic landmark, infrastructure, and streetscape improvements throughout the community. “We believe that a TIF was the right tool to use to jump-start mixed-use development of property adjacent to Loyola’s campus, and to look comprehensively at important gateways to the campus and the city of Chicago,” says Wayne Magdziarz, Loyola University’s vice president of capital planning.

The result is Loyola Station, a new transportation- and university-oriented development in Rogers Park. The mixed-use project represents the first of five phases in the 5.4-acre, $400 million redevelopment on university-owned land surrounding the Chicago Transit Authority’s Loyola Station “L” stop. As the master developer, the university established economic development and urban planning objectives to guide future development.

Phase I of the planned 400,000-square-foot mixed-use development is scheduled for completion in 2008. Some of the people involved in this project claim it will play a critical role in the transformation of the area by bringing new vitality in the form of retail and residential development; lead to streetscape improvements; and help renovate the historical landmark.

“Loyola Station will be one of the largest comprehensive developments undertaken on the north side of Chicago in the past 20 years,” says Haney.—M.S.

Mike Sheridan, a past president of the National Association of Real Estate Editors, is a financial journalist based in Parsippany, New Jersey.

Urban Land: April 2006
© 2006 ULI–the Urban Land Institute, all rights reserved.

Contributed by George Sullivan