Niles voters overwhelmingly approved a non-binding referendum in the June 28th primary election authorizing the village to move ahead with major improvements to Golf Mill Shopping Center.
Unofficial election results from the Cook County Clerk’s office show that 75.3% of voters supported the village using its resources to spur redevelopment of the sizable shopping center, which has declined in recent years.
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Because the referendum is non-binding, citizens will still be able to weigh in on the project as it progresses.
Golf Mill, first built in the 1960s, has been a subject of potential redevelopment since 2018. Niles residents have demonstrated a strong interest in redeveloping the mall, according to the results of the village’s Niles 2040 plan.
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Mayor George Alpogianis described the referendum as another checkpoint for citizens to make their preferences heard on the $300 million project.
“When it comes to Golf Mill, we wanted the village to chime in on whether we needed to continue to talk with the landlords to get Golf Mill fixed,” he said.
The most recent plans for the site came out in January. According to those renderings, the redone Golf Mill will include a water feature, a 300-unit residential complex and an outdoor gathering area as well as retail space. The current plan calls for scrapping the entire interior of the mall.
The site is situated in a tax increment financing district, in which sales tax revenues and additional property tax revenues generated by any development are used to encourage new economic development, according to the Illinois Department of Commerce. TIF revenue will allow the village to subsidize some of the costs associated with redeveloping the area, including demolition and utility costs. But most of the cost will fall on Sterling Organization, the owner of the shopping center.
The next milestone in the process, according to Niles’ Director of Economic Development John Melaniphy, is a terms sheet, which lays out a tentative redevelopment agreement between the village and the Sterling Organization. Melaniphy said that document should be finalized in the next six weeks.
