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Oak Brook voters approve $18M bond sale to make McDonald’s land a park
The Atlanta-based Pulte has also proposed to build 170 townhomes on the property
The Oak Brook Park District won the backing of more than two-thirds of the town’s voters on Tuesday for a proposed $17.9 bond to buy 34 acres of vacant land from McDonald’s.
The district was seeking public approval for its plan to convert the grassy expanse into public play fields, according to the Tribune. The restaurant chain finished moving its headquarters earlier this year from Oak Brook to Chicago’s Fulton Market neighborhood, and the suburb’s leaders asked the company about buying the land as far back as 2016.
Still, park district officials have acknowledged that the proposed $17.9 million bond may ultimately not be enough to buy the property, as a developer could outbid them.
The Atlanta-based Pulte Group has proposed to build a 170-home gated community on the land. ] But the company has yet to formally propose its plans to the Oak Brook Village Board, which would have to approve it.
A roughly 14-acre chunk of the land had previously belonged to the park district, until McDonald’s bought it for $10 million in 1996.
The Houston-based Hines has proposed to demolish the restaurant chain’s Oak Brook office park and build multiple towers in its place.
Earlier this year, Zeller Realty and Olympus Ventures refinanced the 546,000-square-foot Commerce Plaza office complex in Oak Brook. [Chicago Tribune] — Alex Nitkin