Burnham Hospital site plans stalled, still high-interest project
Dan Kurash
The Daily Illini
Even though immediate plans for the the Burnham Hospital Site have fallen through, the future still appears optimistic.
The Stone Arch Village Project, the planned redevelopment for the Burnham Hospital site, will no longer be the focal point of the northwest corner of the Fourth Street and Springfield Avenue intersection.
This ends more than a year’s worth of discussions between the city and the Burnham Redevelopment Group.
“Financially it just didn’t work out because of the restrictions on the amount of student housing,” said Joseph Petry, a member of the Burnham Redevelopment Group, the developers of the Stone Arch Village Project. “We tried for a long time and we weren’t close enough to make a final agreement.”
In October 2002, Champaign sought out proposals from various developers to research the best possible alternatives for the land. They received six proposals. Their favorite was the Burnham Redevelopment Group, followed by a proposal by The Atkins Group.
“The Burnham project is still a very high interest project, and we’re now at the stage of looking at the other alternatives to the area,” said Bruce Knight, Champaign planning director.
Mike Martin, Atkins project manager, said Champaign has not yet contacted them about working on the site. But the Atkins Group will address that when and if that time were to come.
Champaign City Council member Tom Bruno said they will be looking at all possibilities. But Atkins, who merged with Wisegarver Construction back in 1999, tops the list.
However, Champaign City Council member Jim Green said the Atkins proposal didn’t propose to develop a great deal of office space, something that might have originally knocked back the proposal behind the Stone Arch Village Project.
The main reason for ending the Burnham Development Group agreement was a conflict over the amount of four-bedroom student apartments. Green said the area always had been intended for mixed-use development of retail, office complexes and apartments and/or condominiums.
The Stone Arch Project developers wanted more room to be given to student housing, a major disagreement with one of the city’s original goals for the project, which was to develop an area for more permanent residence, Green said.
Champaign initially purchased the land for $2.6 million. The Stone Arch Village Project predicted property values to exceed $30 million.
Council member Tom Bruno said the interest in the project from a city’s standpoint has certainly stayed because of the economic potential.
“We’re just waiting to see a mutual agreement between (city staff) and a developer before any further action can take place,” Bruno said.
But the seven-acre Tax Increment District or TIF will remain intact, said Richard Schnuer, Champaign finance director.
A TIF is used to help an economically stagnant area regain strength. While an area is a TIF, all improvements made to that TIF district are paid through a separate fund in the city’s budget.
Last year, Champaign received a bond from the state as an “OK” to turn the area into a TIF district.
Once the seven-acre Burnham TIF district ends 20 years from now, revenues gained from that area will pay for those costs.
“It’s kind of like putting a hold on all your expenses of a project until a time when that area is fully up and running,” Schnuer said.
Knight mentioned after spending a year and a half negotiating the Stone Arch project, they’ll have to reassess what they are looking for — so long as a mixed-use of retail, office space and condominiums is included in the proposal.
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