$65M bond sale possible for start of Orland Main Street project

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Property in the Main Street Triangle that planners want to develop into an apartment complex. | Larry Ruehl~Sun-Times Media

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Orland Park has created a website, www.downtownop.com, to provide information about the proposed “Ninety 7 Fifty On The Park” development slated for four acres near the 143rd Street Metra station.

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Updated: January 23, 2012 3:19AM

Orland Park could sell as much as $65 million in bonds to finance construction of the first phase of the Main Street triangle development, which will include nearly 300 luxury apartments.

Speaking this week to the SouthtownStar’s editorial board, Orland Park Mayor Dan McLaughlin and other village officials said the village will partner with Indianapolis-based Flaherty & Collins Properties, which has built other high-end apartment developments in the Midwest.

Village business leaders got a preview of the transit-oriented residential and retail project last week, and village planners will get their first look at it next week.

Orland Park and Flaherty & Collins are expected to have their partnership agreement ironed out in the next week or two.

Flaherty & Collins will build the apartments, which would be near the 143rd Street Metra station and Crescent Park Circle, while the village would pay the cost of construction, selling perhaps as much as $65 million in bonds, officials told the SouthtownStar.

Still, the village hasn’t yet decided on some of the financial aspects of the project, such as how it will be paid for, Paul Grimes, Orland’s village manager, said. The village expects that should bonds be sold, rent paid by tenants of the apartments would be sufficient to cover debt service.

However, depending on how the bond sale is structured, taxpayers could be on the hook for some of the cost, particularly if the apartments don’t rent as briskly as officials hope.

And how might taxpayers ­­­­­— their own finances still shaky — react to the village pouring that kind of money into the development?

“Somewhere we’ve got to make a decision that’s good for the village regardless of how many people are gulping,” McLaughlin told the editorial board.

When it comes time for them to vote on the bond issue, village trustees “will be faced with a very, very significant policy decision,” Grimes told the editorial board.

The four-acre site the apartments would be built on is directly west of Orland Plaza.

Orland Park is paying $7.5 million for Orland Plaza, northwest of 143rd Street and LaGrange Road, to provide land for additional portions of the triangle development. That purchase is slated to close next February.

Saltwater pool, game lounge

The apartment complex development has been given the highfalutin name “Ninety 7 Fifty On The Park.” It would also include 4,000 square feet of commercial space.

The 295 one- and two-bedroom apartments would rent for an average of $1,500 a month and would attract young professionals who would commute to jobs downtown, as well as empty-nesters, according to the village.

The thinking is those renters could eventually become homeowners, helping offset Orland’s “aging population of baby boomers,” according to promotional materials about the project the village has issued.

Those materials describe 9750 as being “like no other apartment development in the region,” with renters enjoying amenities such as private outdoor courtyards, a heated saltwater pool, a fitness club with a yoga studio, a game lounge and “aqua lounge.”

The apartment units would be contained in one building, but it would have the appearance of multiple structures, some three stories high and others five.

Village trustees could vote whether to approve the development at a board meeting next month. The village wants to break ground this fall and have units ready to rent by spring 2013.

Condo market dries up

The village had initially envisioned condominiums on the property, but at least a year ago concluded that rental property would be the better option. Orland says there is “no near-term foreseeable market” for condo sales, but there is “substantial market opportunity for luxury residences.”

Evidence of slack demand for condos can be found at a Flaherty & Collins project in Matteson, called Echelon. The company had proposed 168 condominiums for a site west of Cicero Avenue but built 50, saying work would resume when the economy improved.