By Howard Packowitz
The mayoral race in Normal happened 18 months ago, but it was far from a distant memory as the town council approved a redevelopment agreement and the use of tax incentives to help finance an office building on the northeast portion of Uptown Circle.
The agreement includes rebating up to $8 million from Uptown’s Tax Increment Financing District to Bush Construction over an 18 year period ending in 2039. The Iowa firm plans to build a $29.2 five-story building for the offices of the Farnsworth Engineering Group, in addition to some residential and retail space, including a food hall featuring local products.
Conservative Marc Tiritilli, who lost the 2017 mayoral race by just 11 votes, argued the TIF money belongs to Unit 5 schools. Tiritilli’s claim the town coerced the school board into accepting an Uptown TIF extension prompted an angry response from Councilman Jeff Fritzen.
“Nobody was putting pressure on Unit 5 to sign on or else. That was not true,” exclaimed Fritzen, who announced Monday he’s not running for re-election.
Tiritilli said private investors should not have to depend on government aid.
“After 15 years, after a quarter billion dollars of investment, after diverting money from our schools and putting pressure on them, Uptown still can’t attract a viable project unless we subsidize it,” said Tiritilli.
“That’s a huge problem,” he added.
Old buildings at 104 and 108 E. Beaufort will come down, in addition to a popular mural, to make way for the Trail East project, and the town will provide 300 parking spaces to the development at a monthly cost of $10 per space.
The council unanimously approved the redevelopment agreement.
Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]
