Burr Ridge Official Privately Pushed Costco As A Must

BURR RIDGE, IL – The development at the old CNH industrial property in Burr Ridge must include Costco as long as the chain wants to build there, a village official said in a private email last year.

In the email, Village Administrator Evan Walter was writing to Mike Stratis, a longtime consultant for Costco and a member of the Burr Ridge Plan Commission.

The two men had emailed each other since July 2022 about the potential for a Costco at the CNH property at 6900 Veterans Boulevard – a possibility that the village kept under wraps from the public until last month. The communications were obtained through a resident's public records request.

Stratis has told Patch before that he would not vote or take part in any commission discussion related to CNH if Costco chooses to locate there.

Burr Ridge, which has not received a formal proposal for the development yet, has promised hearings on any plan. Many nearby residents are opposed to a next-door Costco.

In a Nov. 13 email, Walter told Stratis, "We have been pretty clear that as long as Costco is interested and motivated, Costco must be included in any development (understanding that nobody can compel Costco to participate)."

Asked Tuesday whether that was still the village's position, Walter said in an email, "The Village has not, does not and will not require any developer to provide Costco as part of any development."

He said the village was open to any idea that provides "complementary value" for neighboring property owners as well as the village as a whole.

The November email, Walter said, was related to Burr Ridge's encouragement of CNH to seek a wide variety of concepts. He said industrial was the original marketing target for CNH.

Walter said the village wanted no one excluded, "even if the concepts brought forward end up being not feasible for any reason."

"The Village was and remains interested in having the opportunity to understand what options are possible for the CNH site," he said in Tuesday's email. "Of course, any proposal for 110 acres of redevelopment will require significant scrutiny, which will occur if/when we receive a zoning petition for the property."

In a Sept. 7, 2022, email, Stratis, vice president of Intrepid Properties, said CNH wanted all qualified bidders to meet with the village.

"They are liberal in their advertising of Costco's interest," Stratis told Walter. "They were told our inquiries are confidential and proprietary and not for general distribution. Probably no serious consequence, but could alert the general public prematurely.

In another email in November, Stratis described Costco as "agnostic" on who buys the property as the master developer. For Costco, the main issue would be affordability, he said.

Bridge Industrial, a company with offices around the United States and the United Kingdom, has entered a preliminary deal to buy the property. It has approached the village with an initial plan for the site.

It would include a Costco store, a limited-hours gas station and a two-story regional headquarters office building, the village said in a statement in early August.

The village also said another million square feet of additional space would be for a business park and light industry.

The village was pressed to release the statement after word leaked out about Costco and the rest of the development, with the village blaming a Burr Ridge Park District board member for a breach of "executive session decorum."