Schaumburg has pledged $47 million in public funding for The District at Veridian, clearing the way for construction to begin on the $185 million, 30-acre mixed-use development on the former Motorola campus.
The first of four phases of the long-awaited “Main Street”-style project will bring 65,000 square feet of retail space, including a grocery store, and more than 300 high-end apartments to the southwest corner of Algonquin and Meacham roads.
When complete, The District is expected to include about 178,000 square feet of retail space, 91,000 square feet of restaurant space, 608,000 square feet of residential space and nearly four acres of open space, according to a framework approved by Schaumburg officials last year.
There also would be 528 surface parking spaces and more than 2,500 spaces within four garage structures.
“The commitment that the village is showing to the project is sending a message to the marketplace at a much-needed time,” said Bob Burk, managing partner of Veridian developer UrbanStreet Group LLC.
A rendering of The District at Veridian, a planned mixed-use development on 30 acres along Meacham Road in Schaumburg. The first of its four phases is expected to begin vertical construction in the spring and include 65,000 square feet of retail and more than 300 apartments
Courtesy of village of Schaumburg
The village’s funding, also to be provided in phases, comes from the tax increment financing (TIF) district covering redevelopment along Algonquin Road on both sides of Meacham. For a 23-year period, a TIF district sets aside a portion of its territory’s property taxes to fund public improvements that assist private projects.
Schaumburg Mayor Tom Dailly said projects of the size of Veridian, and The District within it, are often prohibitively expensive for developers without public money to pay for infrastructure.
The use of TIF funding also makes the village more of a partner in the project, he added.
“We’re also now controlling the development,” Dailly said.
A site plan of The District at Veridian, a 30-acre mixed-use development at the eastern end of the 225-acre Veridian development in Schaumburg.
Courtesy of village of Schaumburg
Dailly and Schaumburg Economic Development Director Matt Frank noted that like other residential projects within the 225-acre Veridian site, The District includes housing that will provide customers for its businesses.
“In retail, they call that the rooftop effect,” Frank said. “This kind of sets the stage for the true mixed-use development. This is a big milestone for us.”
Burk said he expects infrastructure work on The District to begin this fall with vertical construction of phase one to follow in the spring.
Looking northeast toward the intersection of Meacham Road and Algonquin Road in Schaumburg, where preparations have been made during the first half of 2024 for the construction of The District at Veridian, a 30-acre mixed-use development.
John Starks/jstarks@dailyherald.com
Intending to include taller buildings than a typical suburban development, The District includes no defined maximum height, and buildings of less than two stories will be allowed as secondary structures not to exceed 20% of any of the project’s four phases.
In addition to the grocery store, Burk previously said that several restaurants have tentatively signed on to be part of The District, but the names of those businesses have not yet been disclosed.
UrbanStreet in 2021 indicated the sports-themed restaurant Sports & Social would be part of the project, but it is unclear whether that is still the case.
The Veridian development already features Topgolf, the Northgate at Veridian townhouses, the 260-unit Element at Veridian apartment building, the eight-story, 180,000-square-foot global headquarters of The Boler Co., and a 12-acre city-style park.
The new funding agreement for The District isn’t unprecedented. By 2020, the developer already had received $31.7 million in TIF funding as reimbursement for the first $125 million of redevelopment on the Veridian property, Frank said.
