A property tax war in Arlington Heights centered around the Chicago Bears’ new stadium site is nearing the end of its first skirmish of what could be several more as the NFL team prepares its redevelopment.
The property tax bill for the Arlington Park racecourse, where the Bears plan to build a $5 billion gameday venue, will be about $7.8 million this year following an agreement between Churchill Downs Inc., the Cook County Board of Review and several suburban school districts, the Daily Herald reported.
The new bill is based on a $95 million valuation, which marks a reduction from the initial $16.1 million tax bill it would have faced after the property was reassessed by Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi’s office last year.
After the Bears closed on their purchase of the former horse racing track from Churchill Downs, Kaegi’s office valued the property at $197 million, just shy of what the team paid for the site. The tax bill based on that valuation will still be applied next year, without the Bears’ agreements with local school districts and the Cook County Board of Review.
Three school systems — Palatine Township Elementary School District 15, Northwest Suburban High School District 214 and Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 — get property taxes stemming from the 326-acre site. They’ve suggested that the $95 million valuation stays firm until it’s reassessed in 2025, the outlet reported. But that’s not final, until new assessments are set and any appeals are heard by the Board of Review over the next two years.
“It is important to know that the 2023 and 2024 assessments have yet to be set by the county assessor, and no agreement has been reached between the school districts and the Chicago Bears with respect to those two years,” school district officials said in a statement.
Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren argued that even the one-year reduction of the assessment ended up too high for a property that’s been vacant for years. The team tried to counter with a $52.5 million valuation, which would have generated about $4.3 million in property taxes annually.
— Quinn Donoghue
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