Lyons Township High May Hire Broker For Land Sale

LA GRANGE, IL – The Lyons Township High School board is considering hiring a real estate broker to help with the sale of a multimillion-dollar piece of property.

The idea came from board member Shawn Kennedy.

"It's a very large asset," Kennedy, who was elected in April, said during a board meeting this week. "I don't know that anyone in the room has dealings with selling anything like this."

The board's president, Tim Albores, said he hesitated about the proposal at first. He feared it would mean paying a percentage of the sale price to the broker.

"It turns out it wouldn't be that," he said.

Superintendent Brian Waterman said he could get information from brokers within a couple of weeks.

He said it may delay the school's timeline to sell the 73-acre property in Willow Springs a bit. The school's timeline calls for going out to bid in January and opening bids in March.

Board members generally agreed to let Waterman reach out to brokers.

They said they wanted the school to let potential brokers know that the developer must abide by Willow Springs' zoning, which allows housing and light retail. The property is next to houses and an elementary school.

Two developers, Elmhurst-based Nitti Development and Atlanta-based Pulte Group, have already expressed interest in the largely wooded land.

The school bought it more than six decades ago for a potential third campus. But expected increases in enrollment did not happen. So the school now wants to sell the land to pay for improvements at its two campuses.

A Patch story last week described the controversy surrounding the board's previous effort to sell the land to an industrial developer.