$200 Million Mellody Farm Development Gets Nod

Gregory Harutunian for Chronicle Media
A 134-acre parcel at the southwest corner of the intersection at routes 21 and 60 is the projected home of Mellody Farm LLC development, with commercial and residential dwellings. (Photo by Gregory Harutunian/for Chronicle Media)

A 134-acre parcel at the southwest corner of the intersection at routes 21 and 60 is the projected home of Mellody Farm LLC development, with commercial and residential dwellings. (Photo by Gregory Harutunian/for Chronicle Media)

$200 Million Mellody Farm Development Gets Nod afts undertaken last Feb., and completed by Chicago-based Kane, Mc Kenna, and Associates, Inc. for the village. Their findings indicated the parcel met state of Illinois TIF qualification as “blighted” land that required the special taxing distinction for improvements to be made.

The TIF report and preliminary engineering plan was completed, and not to exceed a $45,000 cost said Joe Carey, the assistant village manager. “The big part is the remediation work to implement their plan, where this empty site is on a fully developed commercial corridor.”

The floodplain portion was framed out, however there are also wetlands, according to the study and visual inspections, what was described as household waste and debris such as buried 55-gal. drums.

The parcel has been long tagged as “the crown jewel” in the village’s master comprehensive plan, due to its commercial potential and proximity to the Hawthorn Shopping Center.

The TIF-district creation for the 55 floodplain acres was carved out for identification and will not impact concerns from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, or the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

“Approximately $20 million in TIF assistance is still in process,” said Kalmar. “The land acquisition and related buildings will come up to around $200 million,” said Kalmar. “What we understand is that the property has not been acquired from the Cuneo family, and won’t occur until mid-February, with construction to begin in the late spring 2017.

“The construction time frame is slated for a window of 12-18 months, for everything to be completed and ready for opening. There have been a number of proposals for the property over the last 16 years, and each time, they were not able to complete the purchase because of the price or factors with the economy.”

The TIF-district eligibility report was first unveiled at a March 9 inaugural meeting of the village’s Joint Review Board, which pulled the various taxing bodies together into a public session. Prior to the district’s creation, all the relevant taxing entities must be in concordance with the designation.

Infrastructure will be a major hurdle for the project, as well as the environmental impact on the parcel and surrounding perimeters. Those upgrades could be addressed by the TIF district, where the equalized assessed valuation rate of the site, would be frozen for up to 23 years. Illinois Department of Revenue guidelines stipulate any tax amounts above the abated rate can be placed into a fund that would be used for such purposes.

The Cuneo family owned the Hawthorn-Mellody Farms enterprise. It included a dairy, and a family attraction located west of Route 21 and south of Artaius Parkway. At its 1950s and 1960s zenith, the campus contained a zoo, a Quonset-style structure and store, and a 1.5-mile train ride that took visitors to a facsimile frontier town which doubled each October, as a ghost town.

By the 1970s, economic factors and a cost-prohibitive production model curtailed the venture and forced bankruptcy proceedings.

“The Cuneo Mansion is owned by Loyola now, and the family trust maintains some holdings,” said Kalmar. “Regarding a timetable, we’re moving forward.”