We're coming up on 20 years since Hoffman Estates broke ground on the Sears Centre, and so far I think it's safe to say the whole thing was kind of a bust. The ECHL team died a quick death as major-market ECHL teams always do, the indoor lacrosse team died a quick death as all indoor lacrosse teams do, and I think there were some ill-fated arena football teams that came and went too. The D-League Bulls have at least been a steady presence, and I know it's hallowed ground for AEW fans, but with the United Center, the Horizon, UIC Pavilion, Wintrust Arena, Loyola's arena, not to mention the MetroCentre down the road in Rockford, it's fair to say the whole place wound up being kind of inessential.
But I had one of those little sparks of half-remembrance earlier where I wasn't sure whether I truly had a faint memory or just made it up: namely, that the NW burbs were supposed to get an arena in Prospect Heights, on the other side of Palatine Road from the airport. Didn't I have a map with a little box marked "Prospect Heights Arena" around there? Why would I imagine that?
I didn't. Apparently there really were plans to put a 12,000-seat arena across from Pal-Waukee. From from the 12/24/97 Trib:
Quote: The arena itself would sit in another TIF district of 70 acres that was created in 1996. The arena’s developers suggest their project could spark development and draw a Continental Basketball Association franchise, ice skating, concerts and conventions.
“There is a tremendous need and demand for exactly what we are going to deliver here,” said Jack Wilson, president of Northfield-based Prospect Development Corp.
Rotchford said the city anticipates spending between $16 million and $20 million to acquire the land needed for the sports arena and parking.
Financial experts retained by the developer have estimated that Prospect Heights would receive $329,000 a year in sales taxes–much more than the $25,000 generated from the area in recent years. The development also is predicted to create 200 new jobs.
Prospect Development unveiled its arena plans in July 1996. Those plans were greeted by protests from occupants of a nearby apartment complex, who expressed fears their homes would be swallowed up by the development.
Those concerns were eased when the city decided to move the project, a decision made possible by the Federal Aviation Administration approval of a 30-acre site near Palwaukee Airport that is slightly west of the apartments.
Officials of Prospect Development say they need the five acres where Lewis International and the other businesses are located to construct the parking lot.
Much of the land targeted for parking lies outside the original TIF district. So, in January, the City Council is expected to consider creating a second, 14 1/2-acre TIF district next to the original taxing district.
Several aldermen, however, say they plan to fight the formation of a new TIF district because they don’t want the city to hurt small business owners.
“I have a serious problem with a government body taking businesses and land away from families who have been in the city longer than we have been incorporated,” said Ald. Greg Koeppen (3rd). “They’ve made the city what it is today.”
Arena critics contend the facility would be too close to the Rosemont Horizon, a 17,500-seat venue.
Also, the new arena could face intense competition from a possible new development in Gurnee, where Time Warner Inc. is considering building a 136-acre entertainment complex next to the Six Flags Great America amusement park and the Gurnee Mills outlet mall.
That development would have its own 12,000-seat arena, as well as a hotel and theme park.
Wilson said the Prospect Heights arena would be successful because it would not compete for the same talent and events.
But even with the promise of TIF funding, apparently the developers could never rustle up the $85MM it would have cost to build an arena district in the Wheeling-Northbrook taint and the whole thing unravelled over the course of the early 2000s, with everyone finally giving up by '04. I wonder if there's any shared DNA between this planned arena and what Hoffman Estates ultimately got instead. I think the Sears Centre is a bit smaller at 10,000 for concerts and 8,000 for hockey, and it wouldn't surprise me if the only difference wound up being that the Sears Centre didn't build out one end of the seating bowl.
And apparently it took until 2018 for the whole project to be dead-dead, with Prospect Heights finally selling off the last parcels of industrial land to people who'd use it for, well, other industrial stuff:
Quote: Prospect Heights is close to selling the final parcels once targeted for a 12,000-seat arena just south of Chicago Executive Airport.
Mayor Nick Helmer announced Wednesday the city is nearing a deal with a developer for the 10 acres, contingent on approval from the city council.
The announcement came during the annual "State of the Village and the City" address to the Wheeling/Prospect Heights Area Chamber of Commerce. Wheeling Village President Pat Horcher also shared updates about plans for a new downtown emerging along Dundee Road.
The former Prospect Heights arena site directly west of the city public works building on Piper Lane has enough room for two industrial buildings, Helmer said. The area is zoned for heavy commercial industrial use.
But details of the potential buyer - described only as a national commercial developer - and plans for the land remain confidential as the city continues negotiations.
The sale would be a final chapter in the city's effort to sell off about 30 acres once primed for an $88 million arena.
A development group had plans for the arena to be the home of an expansion franchise in the now-defunct Continental Basketball Association and the touring ice skating show "Stars on Ice" starring Olympic gold medalists Tara Lipinski and Scott Hamilton.
Developers and city officials even got so far as to hold a ceremonial groundbreaking in 2000.
But the group failed to gain enough financial backing and the arena plan was abandoned after voters rejected issuing bonds to help fund the development in 2004.
Helmer also provided updates Wednesday on efforts to establish a downtown at the intersection of Route 83 and Camp McDonald Road.
Good luck on that Downtown Prospect Heights, by the way. It's still the same Heffy's/Malnati's/7-Eleven strip mall that's been there since I was in preschool.
As bad as the Sears Centre may be, I think a Prospect Heights arena in that location would have been even worse. It's so hard to imagine a destination on that stretch of Palatine Road, which from Rand to Milwaukee has always just been something you hunker down and get through. It would have been off the corner of Palatine and Wolf, which is one of the intersections that does have exit ramps (Elmhurst and Milwaukee also do, Windsor and Wheeling have stoplights), but again, it's just not what that kind of area is really meant for. Bullet dodged.
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