Chicago Bears and Arlington Heights agree on a deal involving real estate taxes on the former site of the Arlington International Racecourse
The Chicago Bears have had an eventful Thanksgiving week. Prior to their loss on Thanksgiving to the Detroit Lions and their firing of their head coach on Friday, November 29th, the Chicago Bears, village of Arlington Heights and the local school districts agreed to a memorandum of understanding involving the amount of real estate taxes to be paid for the former site of the Arlington International Racecourse for 2024 and possibly beyond. The village and the local school boards still need to formally approve the agreement where the terms of the agreement have not been disclosed. This approval could happen in December, 2024. The Chicago Bears’ President Kevin Warren has stated publicly that he is aiming for shovels to be in the ground on the new Bears’ site sometime in 2025.
While this tentative agreement or memorandum of understanding does not guarantee the Bears will build a new stadium in Arlington Heights, it does improve the chances of a suburban stadium. Soon after this tentative agreement was publicly announced, the Bears issued a public statement which discussed both the Chicago stadium option and the Arlington Heights’ stadium option when it stated that “The Chicago Bears remained focused on investing over $2 billion to build a publicly owned enclosed stadium on Chicago’s lakefront while reevaluating the feasibility of a development in Bronzeville. That being said, we remain significant landowners in Arlington Heights and establishing a framework for potential future development planning, financing and property tax certainty has been a priority since the land was purchased. We continue to have productive conversations with the village and school districts and are aligned on a framework” with building a stadium in Arlington Heights.
Arlington Heights Mayor Tom Hayes called the deal “a significant step” and believes that an agreement would be formalized in the near future, outlining “a more clear path forward.”
For the 2023 tax year, the Cook County Board of Review set the market value for the Bears Arlington Heights’ land at $125 million. The Bears had submitted appraisals valuing its land from $60-$71 million and categorizing the property as vacant residential land which gets taxed at 10% market value. Local school officials have said the land should be valued at $160 million and classified for commercial use which has a 25% level of assessment and not a 10% level of assessment for vacant land.
As for the stadium proposals, both the lakefront and the Arlington Heights plans would involve the expenditure of public taxpayer dollars. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Illinois legislative leaders have not expressed their wholehearted approval of that type of public contribution, but some northwest suburban state legislators said the recent developments have been encouraging.
Bears’ President Kevin Warren and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson earlier this year proposed a $3.2 billion, enclosed, publicly owned, stadium with the team contributing $2 billion. This $3.2 billion proposal does not include the $1.5 billion cost for building the infrastructure needed to operate the new facility; money that would be funded by the public which the team says would be necessary to fully realize its proposed year-round stadium and surrounding park space.
As it stands, both the City of Chicago and Arlington Heights proposals are still viable and on the table for consideration. With the suburban real estate tax issue for both parties tentatively resolved, the momentum for the Arlington Heights’ proposal will once again move forward. Democratic state Senator Mark Walker of Arlington Heights summed it up by stating that “I would think that the local communities, especially Arlington Heights have more flexibility on providing property tax relief than would the city (of Chicago) at this point. But the issues of capital and state funding are still out there and … my guess is that the Bears would have to find another source for the big capital.” So both the Chicago Bears’ future stadium location and its head coaching position are up in the air with no set date for either to be resolved in the near future.
