The audio clip I posted on January 8th of the Village Board discussing Sunrise was bothersome to me in one specific way. The comments made by members of the Board conveyed the notion that the Board is really not yet engaged with Sunrise in relation to the upcoming purchase of the riverfront property.
It is probable, in my view, that the members of the board were being truthful that they actually are not privy to the precise details of the negotiations between Sunrise and the owners of Riverbrook and the Touhy building. However, their comments left the impression that they were just waiting on the sidelines to see if Sunrise does buy the riverfront site, at which point they will get involved.
In fact, the Village is working to land the Sunrise development with a package of infrastructure improvements and incentives, including the offer to repurchase land from Sunrise. Documents produced for the December 3rd closed session of the Village Board list the following potential incentives. (View the document)
- $870,000 for the re-purchase by the Village from Sunrise of ½ of the lot that the Touhy property currently occupies.
- $2.2 million in infrastructure improvements for the Riverfront site. Some of these will also enable future developments of the back lot of the Riverfront site.
I believe the Board is acting in what they believe to be good faith with the developer by refusing to comment on the negotiations. However, in this case, there is plenty of information about the transaction which is public information, and about which the Board could have legitimately commented.
