Brookfield’s Northbrook Court Mall Qualifies for TIF District

Brookfield Properties long-awaited redevelopment of the Northbrook Court shopping mall is looking more realistic after scoring a favorable opinion with a consultant for a northern suburb of Chicago.

Michio Murakishi, who was tasked by the Northbrook village board to conduct a feasibility study for a potential tax increment financing district that could save Brookfield millions on property taxes, found the shopping center’s 105 acres at 1515 Lake-Cook Road is eligible for such a designation, the Daily Herald reported.

Brookfield Properties has been planning to convert Northbrook Court into a mixed-use development since 2019, before the pandemic wiped out shopping malls throughout the Chicago suburbs as online shopping surged in popularity, forcing a slew of mall landlords to pursue redevelopment.

Brookfield’s plans for the site include 255,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, along with 2,000 residences that would blend apartments, condos, townhomes and possibly other types of dwellings. The developer aims to complete the project in phases over a 10-year span.

Brookfield has determined the total cost of the project currently includes a $90 million between what it could fund and its $750 million commitment, the outlet reported. The TIF could help close that difference.

“We’re looking forward to the public conversation about the establishment of a new TIF district at Northbrook Court to support this important redevelopment proposal,” Northbrook Village Manager Cara Pavlicek told the outlet.

Murakishi determined that the property qualifies as a TIF district based on six factors: obsolescence, deterioration, excessive vacancies, inadequate utilities, lack of community planning, and declining equalized assessed value.

Northbrook Court’s vacancy rate increased from 10 percent in 2018 to 20 percent in 2020. Mall vacancies below 10 percent are considered “healthy.” The property’s equalized assessed value, the figure used for property tax calculations, has also plummeted based on six years of data through 2021, when its EAV was around $72 million.

After the consultant’s finding that establishing a TIF for the property would be appropriate, the village board must vote in favor of doing so. It’s unclear when such a vote may be taken.

— Quinn Donoghue