Schaumburg abandoning plans for performing arts center, shifting $27.5 million already saved
Schaumburg is officially moving on from its long-standing plans for a 2,400-seat performing arts center west of the Renaissance Hotel by reallocating the $27.5 million gradually saved for it over the years to the village's building replacement fund.
Trustees on Tuesday further recommended changing the policy for saving future annual reserves by making police officer and firefighter pension funding as a higher priority.
For the past 18 months, a proposed Andretti Indoor Karting & Games facility has led plans for the first phase of an entertainment district that would use the site on the Schaumburg Convention Center campus that had been reserved for the performing arts center.
Those plans are expected to go before the zoning board of appeals and village board in the early fall for a likely opening in spring 2025, Schaumburg Economic Development Director Matt Frank said.
The performing arts center was initially proposed to open in conjunction with the convention center and Renaissance Hotel in 2006, but it was indefinitely delayed due to financial concerns over constructing all three at once.
Under the newly recommended policy for saving reserves, the first $500,000 of surplus revenue at the end of each fiscal year would go to the police and fire pension funds. Any beyond that would be divided evenly between the building replacement fund and the capital improvement plan that's focused more on roads and utilities.
Until now, all such reserves were divided 50/50 between the performing arts center and the capital improvement plan.
Though the moment was rapidly approaching when a choice had to be made between the performing arts center and the Andretti project anyway, Mayor Tom Dailly said a growing need for more pension funding had just as much to do with the timing of the board's decision.
"We need to do more with our pensions," he said. "Almost every other community in Illinois is facing the same issue. We need to step up and do more."
Though the village board could abandon its plans for the $45 million to $65 million performing arts center with a final vote next week, officials still expect to construct a public 900-space parking deck as part of the entertainment district's first phase.
Funding for that could eligibly come from the tax-increment financing district that uses property tax money above a certain level for redeveloping the area along Algonquin Road east and west of Meacham Road, rather than the building replacement fund to which the performing arts center savings would be going, Assistant Village Manager Paula Hewson said.