Staff will conduct an initial vetting process, determining which proposals are viable and fit Waukegan, city attorney Bob Long said.
That short list will be finalized around Aug. 26 with interviews of the remaining candidates to follow after Labor Day, according to the
addendum. A public hearing will be scheduled for late September.The
public hearing will give residents and other community members a chance
to speak on the subject, and each of the potential developers will also
get a chance to present, Long said.
The finalists, chosen by the Waukegan City Council at a later meeting, will then be forwarded on to the Illinois Gaming Board,
according to Long and the addendum. The city’s deadline to make those
recommendations is Oct. 25.
The city has intentionally kept its criteria broad — leaving the location, size and scope up to developers — so that city officials can
consider all options and then recommend the ones that work best for
Waukegan, Mayor Sam Cunningham said.
Cunningham had originally been focused on the city-owned 32 acres at the Fountain Square shopping complex as the home of Waukegan’s casino.
Purchased in 2003 for $6.9 million, the land was valued at $5.5 million in an appraisal completed during the 2012-13 budget year,
according to city records.An updated appraisal was completed just
recently as part of the mayor’s push to get more city-owned land back on
the tax rolls, Cunningham said. The plan is to release a registry of
all the city’s properties, many of which are former commercial and
residential sites.
The city will not disclose what the appraisal determined, considering it “proprietary” information, Long said, adding that he’s
not worried the city will be low-balled because the developers
understand it’s a competitive process.
The appraisal will be taken into consideration when evaluating the overall package proposed by developers, Long said. A $10 million offer
for the land combined with a “bare bones” casino proposal might not be
as valuable overall as a $5 million offer with a much more comprehensive
development proposal.
