Village's Business Booster Talks 'Echo Effect'

Spearheading economic development in a town that isn't exactly a hotbed of business at a time when the country is crawling out of a recession might sound like a daunting task, but John Said opted to step into the job anyway last May.

As the community and economic development director, he said that “Morton Grove has a lot of potential.”

“I think it’s important for a community to try to move forward,” Said explained.

That’s why residents, business owners and village officials  and broke into groups to discuss how to spur business along a stretch of Dempster Street from the railroad tracks to the Eden’s Expressway, a move perceived as an important step toward bolstering business in Morton Grove.

surfaced as the preferred vehicle for turning the village’s most used route into a corridor that is attractive to businesses and private investors. The measure, if implemented, would redistribute property taxes to the area for the purpose of redevelopment, while freezing other taxing bodies’ shares.

Patch interviewed Said to discuss the TIF idea, as well as the obstacles and triumphs of economic development in the village that he has encountered a year into the job.

Morton Grove Patch: What’s the problem with Dempster Street when it comes to luring private investment?

John Said: I think the major challenge there… is that is that we’re dealing with a real limiting land size. In most cases, the properties have a lot depth of a 120 feet and a lot of the properties are only 25 feet wide as well. So you are dealing with smaller [parcels] being available. And a lot of them, frankly, were developed on a model which I think most contemporary standards of commercial and retail development would consider outdated.

MP: How so?

Said: The fact that the buildings are on such small properties. The fact that a lot of them don’t have on-site parking. The fact that the way the buildings have been oriented, it’s such that they are aligned or physically laid out as if Dempster were more of a pedestrian environment than it really is.

MP: Two trustees mentioned at the public forum that the area’s commercial image needs a complete overhaul and some branding to lure business there. Where do you stand on that sentiment?

Said: I would support the trustees because they are decision makers for the community. And I think, in my opinion, because of Dempster Street and its current environment with its current physical layout and some of those challenges that we’ve talked about, I do think that Dempster definitely is in need of a new infusion of that sort or a pretty fundamental look at redevelopment.

MP: You presented multiple options at the meeting for revitalizing Dempster. Why do you think the TIF option rose to the top for discussion groups as the primary preference?

Said: Two of the other options talked about were special service areas and Business Improvement Districts (BID)* and in each of those cases, that requires a special assessment, and a special assessment on top of existing property taxes was considered too much.

. . .. And the idea of adding another tax on top of what people pay already was not favored whatsoever. So TIF emerged as the more favored tool for that reason.

The other thing about a TIF is the number of things you can do when you have a TIF--all the possibilities: buying property or doing utility work or things like that. TIF is certainly a favored option when redevelopment is considered; there’s no doubt about that. And certainly it is justifiable based on Dempster Street in its current condition.

MP: What about the money? How much would a TIF district on Dempster cost?

Said: There’s no way I can speculate on that whatsoever. . .We are only gathering information right now about Dempster Street. There’s no one proposal being forwarded or promoted by the village at this point. We are sharing ideas with the community and asking for the community's input.

MP: So there’s nothing you’d say the village is leaning toward?

Said: We’re collecting information. TIF is certainly a realistic opportunity and I think it should be given strong consideration but, frankly, it’s the small groups that came to that conclusion on their own. I encourage that for the same reasons that they said--it’s not an additional tax, it does provide a lot of tools. It’s totally an understandable thought.

MP: Well potentially, if this TIF was established, how does  the average resident who isn’t a business owner benefit from having their tax dollars spent on revitalizing Dempster Street? How do the benefits trickle down?

Said: One, it provides more commercial and retail to the community. And that helps provide more tax revenues in general, and it helps keep their taxes at a more reasonable level instead of [the village] having to raise taxes to provide services.

. . .And that helps draw in traffic from outside the community as well and more people from outside the community might be more likely to spend their money here. People from within the community will find more options inside the community where they might wish to shop or spend some time or have dinner or something like that.

And if you have a revitalized area--whether it’s the Dempster street corridor or, in our case, we’ve already had the Waukegan Road corridor revitalized--that has what I call an echo effect in that the surrounding neighborhoods, even if they’re outside the TIF area, they benefit as well. Their property values benefit, the values of their property has more security because the TIF area has seen reinvestment.

MP: What’s been the good news when it comes to economic development in the village in the past year or so?

Said: The fact that there have been a number of projects that are finally coming to fruition—where they’re going to be built or are already under construction. I can think of three or four that that’s the case with.

MP: Take me through some of those projects.

Said: One I know that a lot of people talk about and ask about all the time is the Culver's project on Dempster Street … That’s one that has begun construction. That’s in the Village Plaza shopping center--it’s on Dempster just west of Harlem. That’s certainly a prominent one.

. . .Another project is the , an independent senior living project. It’s going to be built at the intersection of Lincoln and Lehigh [avenues], and that’s already under construction. In fact, you're seeing building framework and so forth go up over there.

The third one I can mention is the . We expect that project to get under way at some point. I don’t know the exact construction or project schedule, but that’s an approved project. And that is going to be located on the lot right across the street from the train station right on Lehigh.

MP: On a more negative note, what have been the main obstacles when it comes to economic development?

Said: Well instead of calling them obstacles, I call them challenges. And sometimes you can call them opportunities if you’re really feeling positive. 

I think one of the major challenges right now is the continued economic situation that is not a local issue, or even in fact a regional or national issue; it’s kind of a worldwide thing. The economic situation is still pretty difficult, and financing for projects is pretty limited. 

Another challenge that a community like ours has is, and a lot of communities have this similar challenge as well, that we are almost an entirely built-out community. And by that what I mean is that most of our land already has existing structures or other improvements on it. So a lot of times in an environment like that anything that goes on either has to utilize the existing properties with whatever limitations come along with those buildings or those properties. Or you’re looking at redevelopment. That can provide some challenges as well or it can limit people’s options.

But at the same time, the benefit there is that what you see is what you get. You know that you have 40,000 cars a day on Dempster Street, you know that you have a reliable population to support [a business]...Even though we’re a built-out community, it also provides you an opportunity to know what’s here, you know about demographics, you know about the other characteristics and features of our community, so that’s a positive way of looking at that.

MP: In light of what you just said there, knowing what’s here, knowing the demographics, knowing what’s needed—what’s the best route to bolster Morton Grove business at this point? Is it a big-box corporation approach or more of a focus on mom-and-pop operations?

Said: I think the ideal community is one that has a whole variety of opportunities and options available for people. I don’t think it is a good idea to shoehorn ourselves into one thing or the other. 

*Correction: Originally written as business accruement district and changed to Business Improvement District (BID)